


There are no Omnics in Antarctica

by Arioch



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, F/F, Gen, Not Beta Read, Omnic Racism, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-31
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2018-09-21 05:52:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 29,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9534539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arioch/pseuds/Arioch
Summary: Mei gets unfrozen and rescued by the Russian Defense Forces. The world has changed. Russia is under attack. Zarya serves under General Volskaya. Snowball is officially a drone and not sentient.But that's only on paper.





	1. Unfrozen

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is not beta read, so please excuse any mistakes you see. If you absolutely cannot deal, then shoot me a message because I would love to have someone check this over. Same for the Chinese: I do not speak it, if I did anything wrong please tell me.
> 
> I'm also not entirely sure where I'm going. I guess I have some ambitions for plot and some for romance and if I'm lucky I may fulfill one about half. I'm giving it a shot and posting it anyway. I will edit meta information as I go.
> 
> Comments and con crit are welcome!

Crack!

Mei tries to turn away, curl in and protect. Shield her ears, eyes, head, everything. She fails.

Crack!

The noise does not show any signs of stopping, instead the sounds swells burying itself deeper into her body, underneath the flesh until her bones resonate. Pain laps at her like waves. A keen pain builds and Mei struggles to get away, deflect, leave—

Her left hand breaks out of the mold holding her and out into the cold. Any other human – for example a soldier serving in the Rocky Mountains or stationed in Siberia, hell, _especially_ them – would have flinched back and fled into the prison holding them. Mei is one of the few used to the frigidity. She has not only trained her body to tolerate the temperature, she taught it to thrive on it. So Mei keeps pushing. It is her saving grace.

Crack!

Ice shatters and the shards clink onto the floor as she tilts, topples, barely takes another step and stumbles back upwards. _Safed by her own clumsiness_. There’s no time to be bitter so the thought is banished, vanishes into synaptic connections that haven’t truly woken yet.

She is in the cryo lab. Of course, where else would she be? The thing that trapped her in ice is just her cryo pod, which she voluntarily entered, just like the others—

The others. Their pods are still unopened. Mei rushes to the one next to hers. Arrhenius took it with a smile, telling her climatologists had to stick together.

The vital signs on the outside are blocked by error message pop ups, signaling lost connections and processes. The normally transparent pod cover is full of them, shielding the contents inside. Mei doesn’t even try to fix them. Instead, she just bypasses the problem and uses the emergency lever on the left to open the pod manually.

The slide mechanism creeks ominously before something snaps audibly. Finally, it moves into the canopy.

Arrhenius isn’t smiling anymore. She is frozen solid. An inexpert glance might mistake this for controlled cryo freeze that is closely monitored. But Mei knows, she has seen enough trainings holos and bright advertisements to know how it’s supposed to look. She just sees the freezer burn setting in on Arrhenius’ ears, half hidden under shoulder length twists, and the burst IV cannulas. Mei closes the pod and moves to the next one.

20 minutes later she has a body count. Out of all the staff, only Mei was successfully revived. To be fair, they are- were only six, but still. She sits down in the middle of the lab and stares at her crew. The only people she had seen in person for several years. Her friends.

Not that Mei would remotely have been able to help them. She’s simply not trained for medical beyond the basics like everyone on the base nor knows what kind of system failure made the other pods fail while hers kept working. Cryo freeze was the last resort in training, giving a more equipped rescue mission time to launch. They never assumed they could have to revive themselves.

But… Overwatch has access to cutting edge technology, including medical, and a ridiculous budget for research. Rumour – something that mostly reached Antarctica through other scientists staffing other Ecopoints under the guise of sharing “data” – has it Overwatch managed to rebuild a human from ground up with cybernetics a few years back. Maybe they can do something similar here as well, as long as they have enough to work with.

It might be a thin hope to cling to, but what else does Mei have? So she pushes the bodies in the pods behind her out of her mind. (She never would have made it through post grad without compartmentalising like a meditation master. She’s still convinced thinking about deadlines will make them come faster.) Better to find out why she even got woken up than to dwell here. (She tries not to think of it as a grave.) Better to have false hope than none.

The first thing she does is check the batteries and solar arrays for damage. One array is broken and therefore one battery fully drained. Normally that would be quite alarming, but since it _is_ the same way as they left it in when they went under, it is quite reassuring. Funny how living with existential dread and looming death becomes normal after a while, too. Or rather, not funny.

In any case, they, no, she has at least some power she can use. Better make all of it count. She goes to check on the emergency beacon they had set up before the freeze as well. If Overwatch or someone else responded, they were supposed to get reanimated for rescue. Hopefully that is why she was revived.

There’s no answer logged in the system. And not only did Overwatch never ping them back, even worse, the beacon broke down at some point. Because it apparently had been running for nearly _a decade_. A lot more time passed than she anticipated. She should feel lucky the second solar array stayed up to provide energy to extent the beacon’s lifespan.

They asked for help for such a long time and still no one came for them.  Mei sits down for a moment, starring at the displays. Is the beacon even worth repairing when everyone seems to have forgotten about them? She could allocate the energy it needs elsewhere. However, the beacon also intimately tied to the long range communication system. Even if she can’t reach anyone to come rescue her, she could at least say goodbye to her family. She stands up and gets to work.

It takes a while, but eventually Mei can proudly say the beacon is online again. Whoever developed it wisely made the thing foolproof enough so even Mei, who needs help changing her TV settings when the TV helpfully talks back with suggestions, can manage to troubleshoot it. Changing the defective part of the long range communication array was not that hard, thankfully. She shoots off a few emails just to be sure. Now she just has to wait for someone, anyone to answer.

In the meantime, she goes to make a cup of noodles, wolfs them down, puts on a pot of tea and checks on the weather-modification drones. Only she and Arrhenius had one – they’re pretty expensive equipment and none of the others had the qualifications or need to work with one.

Boltz and _xuěqiú_ are both snuggly in their recharging docks. However, when the system switched to emergency power, these were deemed unnecessary processes and shut down to safe battery life. Both drones’ power cells are drained to the core.

Mei pauses before Boltz, tracing the stickers Arrhenius liked to put all over their dome as a reward for a successful measurement expedition or other tasks.  Now, it’s grown into a collage of flowers and dolphins, dinosaurs layered over bleached-out price tags and beneath it football players sandwiched next to almost peeled off hearts. Only Boltz’ eye sensors remain free of decoration.

Mei gives Boltz a pet, taking comfort in the familiar gesture. Boltz and Arrhenius were— are a phenomenal field team and work efficiently and anticipatory of each other. They would have the best chance escaping here. Mei takes a moment to rest her forehead against the drone dome, clinging to the sticker collage with all her strength. Then she lets go.

She has to override two warnings for low power levels from the system before finally being able to connect _xuěqiú_ back to it. Actual charging to full capacity is going to take a few hours but she can’t resist booting _xuěqiú_ up prematurely. Just to do a full system check before she wastes all this energy on an inoperable drone, of course. Any other reason would be wasteful.

 _Xuěqiú_ beeps happily at her when they wake. “Hey,” Mei says and has to lift her glasses so she can brush some tears to the side. Not being able to see _xuěqiú_ properly would make a full status check or conversation difficult.

 _Low pressure area - move away? Xuěqiú_ beeps. _Crew - fully staffed - intact?_

Mei pets the smooth dome reassuringly. _Xuěqiú_ was freshly manufactured specifically for this assignment and are not as experienced as Boltz, a drone that is famed for its reliability despite its age. _Xuěqiú_ , however, still struggles with some of the concepts of organic life, an expertise pretty far removed from meteorology.

“The others… are still in freeze. They will be alright. But they need to rest, do maintenance longer. So it’s just you and me for now.”

_xuěqiú – mei - only?_

“Exactly.” Mei nods, proud of her protégé. X _uěqiú_ abruptly lets out a shrill screech and turns their visual sensors towards the wall.

“ _Xuěqiú_?” ask Mei. They don’t answer.

She gets up with a sigh and returns to the communication hub. When she gets there, a message from the Russian Defense Forces is waiting to be answered.

+++

She has to hold out an additional three days before they can come pick her up. The weather in the Antarctic is still too rough for most aerial modes of transportation and Russia happens to be on exactly the other side of the planet. Honestly, she’s shocked they can make it here so soon. She wonders what interest they would have in her, but doesn’t ask many questions over the staticky satellite uplink they managed to establish.

There haven’t been any other attempts to reach her, not even from a South American country.  It’s… eerie. Polar science is not exactly the biggest field in the world, but there’s usually a steady multinational interest to keep the exploration going. The natural resources are usually incentive enough, despite global agreements against mining. Russia shouldn’t be the only player here. And why hasn’t her own government tried to rescue them yet?

She uses the time she has left to get _xuěqiú_ in the best possible shape. Together they run diagnostics, defrost delicate parts and refill everything they can. They laugh and they fight. _Xuěqiú_ wants to be moved from the recharge station to the top of the endothermic reservoir used for missions full time.

“No.” Mei tells them in no uncertain terms. “You’re not going to get charged for a while wherever they bring us, I don’t know if they will help me rig something up. We’re only leaving with you at 100% energy.”

 _Xuěqiú_ answers with a series of agitated whistles that Mei can’t translate. She never expanded her vocabulary to drone swearing. She gets the gist. The drone refuses to answer her after that, clearly sulking, but at least _xuěqiú_ doesn’t attempt to forcefully detach anymore. She can live with that Mei decides and runs another course of tests.

+++

The Russian Defense Forces arrive half a day after the earliest possible date in a troop carrier straight from the Omnic Crisis. Mei watches it land from the sheltered inside of the base courtyard. It’s enormous, casting a shadow like a whole apartment building. The sheer size takes her breathe away. All of this, just to get her? They didn’t even give her a promise about getting the rest of her crew out and now… this. This.

The outside of the airship is unrefined. The welded seams are left bare to the eye and the whole thing is painted olive. It’s crude and the furthest thing away from the fancy new technology she saw while being with Overwatch. In contrast, the pilot is maneuvering the large frame with routine precision. Despite the ever present winds it sets down like a light feather.

So this is going to be her ride home. Durable. Dependable. Maybe not the newest, but tested by the times and keeping up with them. In the Antarctic, delicate equipment breaks before it can be of any use.

Mei breathes in and out, watching the hangar door with anticipation. She’s fully kitted out, waiting for the arrival of the ship in her best winter gear. It also happens to be the cutest and the violet hues make her feel like she can take on the world. _Xuěqiú_ is on her back with the biggest canister of endothermic fluid they could find.

The soldiers striding out to meet her are decked out in white coats that make them vanish in the snow. Their faces are hidden behind winter hats and some kind of visor. _Xuěqiú_ makes worried noises at the sight of their guns. Mei echoes the sentiment internally. They’re both built for science, for non-violence. Minimizing harm to all is the goal of their research. And besides, the Ecopoint has been out of contact for a few years. What are those soldiers expecting that made them come so heavily armed? It better not be polar bears. Mei has held that particular lecture about habitats way too often.

She finally bites the bullet and meets the approaching squad halfway. “Hello. Thank you for coming.” That sounded… awkward. Why is there no proper social protocol on getting rescued yet? A polite phrase would be heaven-sent right now.

The commander stepping forward is a towering woman wearing a heavier version of the standard gear. Her thighs and her arms have metal armour plates sewn on top. “Welcome. You’re… Mei-Ling Zhou?”

“Uh, yes, I am.”

“I see.” The commander could probably throw Mei on the other side of a small river. She frowns as she inspects Mei as if she might be hiding anything behind her. “Where’s the rest of the crew? Last public information said this base should be staffed with six people.”

“They’re…” Mei swallows. “They’re indisposed. Maybe you can do something for them but for now they’re... It’s probably easiest just to show you.”

“Please do so.” The commander nods. “We will do everything—what is that?!”

 _Xuěqiú_ let out a beep that put every one of the soldiers on alert. In a second the squad is in a tight formation with muzzles bristling in every direction, daring anything to try to attack. The sudden movement makes Mei flinch, putting her even further on guard.

“It’s alright, alright! There’s nothing wrong.” She tries to tell them, waving her arms around nervously. Inside she is cringing. Way to make the heavily armed guests feel more at ease, breaking out panicky fast movements. Your greatest caper yet, Mei! “It was just x _uěqiú._ Here, I will introduce you.” She turns around so they can see the weather-modification drone strapped to her back.

The commander is not, in fact, charmed by _xuěqiú_ greeting her. Instead, she is bellowing at her soldiers and they all take aim at Mei— at x _uěqiú_. Mei turns around again, trying to not give them an opening. She resolutely doesn’t think about what might happen to her if one of them took a shot anyway.

“Hey, stop, hey!” She calls for the dozenth time. Every small waiver of a gun has her shaking with fear. The noise ebbs away. For some reason, her rescuers finally listened and stopped yelling over her. They’re giving her a chance. “I’m… not sure what the problem is. Could you, maybe, tell me? But calmly, please!”

One of the soldiers in the back snorts and the Commander gives him a quick glare that shuts her up. “Your SOS didn’t mention any… omnics.” Her mouth does a complicated crumple. “With you, that is.”

“I…” Didn’t remember Russia having one of the worst fronts during the Omnic Crisis? The resulting anti-omnic sentiment in the country? Missed at least five years of geo-politics? Think, Mei! “Just refreshed the message we send out before. Uh, Opara wrote it. They were in charge, after all.”

The soldiers don’t move, which is good as no one is shooting her and bad because their weapons are still trained on them. They don’t trust _xuěqiú_ and they don’t trust her. Even in a best case scenario, either they will leave her or make her leave _xuěqiú._ She remembers the lone birthday she spent unfrozen, counting cup noodle and trying not to despair, not to lose hope, not to stop loving this continent. She imagines x _uěqiú_ alone on base without even getting to count noodles because they don’t eat. And no one there to put them back into the recharging station to sleep as well.

Neither x _uěqiú_ nor Boltz or any of the bodies in cryo freeze are going to stay behind.

One of the soldiers spits on the ground. “We are not taking one of those nano-brained electron counters with us. And really, we should kill her too, who knows what she’s been doing here just with that thrice-cursed omnic.”

“Shut it.” The guy shrinks back at the commander’s voice, standing to attention again.

“If I may interrupt…” Mei tries to open her eyes as wide as possible. People like to tell her that she’s cute. Normally that makes her try to lose them as fast as possible. She can make this work. “ _Xuěqiú_ is not an omnic. It’s, it’s just a drone. They’re not registered as crew members, you can check. I just named it because. Because I thought it was cute. It means snowball.” All truth, technically.

 “I need them for my work, for studying the weather.  I can’t leave them behind when all my research is stored on it. If I left them here, I would have gotten frozen for nothing! This whole assignment will be for nothing! Arrhenius would’ve died—”

She stops herself. This is not helping her now, she can freak out later, concentrate on the task at hand. Those soldiers are already going to think Mei is the most unfit scientist to send to the Antarctic and that she is either some kind of fey mystical night vision woman or an emotionally unstable weakling that cracks first when put into an ice cocoon. Both are not flattering, but if they think believe the former, there’s a chance they’re also going to buy her story. Or at least take pity on her.

True: _Xuěqiú_ or Snowball is officially a weather-modification drone. Neither Snowball nor Boltz were counted as personal by Overwatch, like an omnic scientist might be. They’re machines.

Wrong: Snowball is not their own person. An Omnic has to be humanoid. In the understanding of the average Russian Defense Force member, Snowball is not autonomous enough to be an Omnic.

All the while, the commander is regarding her, no, Snowball, silently. She hasn’t really shown any emotion that Mei could see. The mask does its job well. Meeting the tiny zoom lenses on the head piece with her eyes is impossible, they look so… mechanic. They send chills down Mei’s back.

“I’m not a tech expert. You say you command it and you can handle this thing. So far I haven’t seen anything contradicting that yet.” Snowball keeps quite. They probably wouldn’t use a word as imprecise as “tense” to describe the mood, but they get that they have to hold still and be silent or something bad will happen to them. Mei isn’t sure if Snowball understands death yet or if they think that everything, humans and omnics, is potentially repairable.

“Petrov, you’re our data engineer. I’m going with your judgement. Dr. Zhou, you give every scrap of info you have to him. I don’t care if you think it’s relevant or not. Either that or we just shoot the damn thing right now. Your choice.”

“I can do that. We have some dossiers about the drones. I’ll get them for you right away!” Mei shouts and runs away before the commander can change her opinion. Petrov follows her through the frigid halls as fast as he can without slipping on the ice.

Mei gets Petrov some of the simpler and condensed manuals for the drones, written for practical climatologists and biologists without complicated things like AI advancement level or Asimov-test scores in problem solving. Those manuals are currently mysteriously unavailable and only exist as files on the computers that were cut off from the grid.

Petrov pulls off his visor and begins navigating through the holos with a surprising amount of dexterity despite wearing gloves. His nose is long and his eyes sharp against his sunken eye sockets. There’s a longing slant to them that makes him seem friendly despite everything.

Mei starts making some small talk. These are very vexing working conditions, her and Petrov both agree. She tells him how glad she is they came to rescue her and it’s been so long since she went home, which means her parents are probably worried sick about her, so if they could finish with this formality as fast as possible…

Petrov pulls off his hat and drags his hand through his brow hair. He agrees that that must simply have been horrible and just gives the documents a few glances while they chat about what they miss most from home. “It’s just a drone.” He tells the commander half an hour later.

Since there’s no way to preserve her colleagues for transport, they can’t bring them on board.  Mei takes a minute while Petrov packs up his diagnostics and goes to visit Arrhenius.

“I’ll be back. I don’t know when or how, but I’m getting you out of here, too.” Petrov and the commander, the only ones that came with her, are pretending to not see her tearing up. “Sleep a little longer, ok?”

She stands in front of the pod for a time. “We leave now.” The commander says. She’s not a person suited to handling things delicately but she’s making an effort to be gentle. Mei appreciates her kindness. She brushes her snot away with her gloves.

“I’m ready.” She and Snowball enter the dropship together, leaving Ecopoint: Antarctica behind.

+++

When they arrive at ‘Volskaya Industries’ it’s snowing heavily.  None of the soldiers make a comment so this is probably a normal weather pattern here. As normal as weather gets these days, anyway.

Her rescuers were not very forthcoming about their destination when Mei asked, not even giving her any hint as to where it was located. Somewhere in Russia was the obvious answer, but that meant little in the biggest country on earth. And that was assuming national geographies hadn’t changed much while she was under.

So, Mei has no idea where she is and in what direction she can safely leave. Or flee, if they will not permit her to go. Perfect.

The crews stationed in Volskaya separate her from Snowball immediately. “For reparations”, they insist as Mei tries to hold on to the straps of her back pack. It is fruitless.

“It has my research. You can’t just take it!” She tells one of the armed men that are trying to take Snowball.

“R&D must approve it first.” The guy jerks the bag out of her hands. Before Mei can say anything else, he’s gone

From the left, Petrov winks at her, as if to say he will take care of it, and follows them with an air of normalcy.

Fifteen minutes later Mei is sitting on one side of a metal table waiting to be ‘debriefed’. Looking back she wonders: Was Petrov trying to flirt with her? Was that why he was so nice?

A very real possibility that made more sense than she liked. Damn.

After what felt like hours, the doors open again and a woman walks into the room. Her neon pink hair – which does not seem like it can be up to military regulations - grabs Mei’s attention first. She sometimes wishes she had the confidence to change her appearance so drastically. Next, Mei notices the big scars across her eyebrows. Under it are eyes that sparkle with confidence and a square jar. The woman’s demeanor is jovial but her enormous muscles belie steely determination.

All in all, Mei has to conclude that her interrogator is handsome to an almost unbelievable degree. Mei feels her mouth becoming dry as it happens. Volskaya may have some information about her private preferences, so what? She’s still a professional. Mei focuses on the eyes and tries to get the rest of the package out of her mind.

Then, the woman start to speak: “Are you ready for debrief, Dr. Zhou?” The voice gives her away instantly: this is in fact the commander of the platoon in charge of rescuing her. How could Mei have completely missed this before? A winter coat alone can’t make that much of a difference. She should at least have guessed from the amount of muscles. Instead, she had been busy swooning.

“Yes.” Mei says while internally berating herself from missing out on this discovery for so long. She isn’t normally so… shallow? Absentminded? Right? “I’m ready.”

“Start recording. This is Lt. Aleksandra Zaryanova interviewing rescued Ecopoint staff Dr. Mei-ling Zhou. Is that all correct, Dr. Zhou?”

Mei honestly hasn’t been called Dr. in years. At the Ecopoint it would have sounded silly to be so formal when everyone was an accomplished scientist in their field. Plus, the living-together-for-years situation factored in as well. And unlike patronizing institution heads or bureaucrats, Zaryanova seems to actually respect what it takes to earn it. That is, if Mei is not projecting onto her. “Y-yeah, it is, Lieutenant.”

“Good. So, to start…” Right, there’s no time for this kind of distraction. If Snowball is to get out of this undamaged she has to do her best to dissuade the Defense Forces from seeing them as a threat, even if she has to slightly twist the truth. Hell, if she wants to leave here at some point, she needs to earn their trust.

She has to nail this interview. No matter how unfairly attractive Lt. Zaryanova is.

+++

They, well, Zaryanova’s superiors might be more accurate but really, no one has told Mei anything yet, so ‘they’ is the right word with enough sinister implication right now. Anyway, they (whoever that may be) decide to let her go. They seem to have laid whatever concerns they had to rest. Or at least no one mentions anything. Really, who is Mei kidding, they have concluded that Mei is not a threat to any soldier on base (clearly true, especially taking in consideration the size of Lt. Zaryanova’s biceps) and think they will be more successful by observating her covertly.

“Let’s get you something to eat!” Lt. Zaryanova claps her on the shoulder affectionately, startling Mei out of her justified suspicions.  Now that Mei made it through the debriefing without hiccups, she has become a lot more informal. In conclusion: either Zarya is the spy of the decade or she’s also just a generally nice person on top of handsome and strong.

_The commander aiming her rifle at Snowball and her when she saw her back, instinctively trying to protect the squad with her. The fear gripped her as she starred down into a gun muzzle ready to fire._

Well, in all other respects at least.

“Thank you, Lt. Zaryanova, but I think I will be able to find some if you point me in the right direction. I’m sure you’re very busy after a mission.”

“Call me Zarya! You can use my nickname, Doctor.” Her arm moves around Mei’s shoulder, steering her out of the interrogation room and down some corridor. Mei can practically feel her crush on Zarya growing.

“I’m not really—, “She tries to interject but Zarya doesn’t seem to hear.

“And really, I’m glad to have an excuse. After a mission, it’s normally all paper work and reporting. Which, you know, it’s important to do so no one can sabotage the Defense Forces from the inside. It all has to be in proper order.” Zarya smiles at her, clearly forcing herself to do so. The emotion in her eyes is pure despair, something Mei is intimately familiar with. After all, she and Opara did most of the lobbying and grant submissions to keep the Ecopoint running. “So really, I can do it later. Unless you would mind eating together?”

No, Mei does not mind it. “Alright, Lieu- I mean, Zarya. You should call me Mei then.” First names are pretty forward for knowing someone for one day, especially someone as impressive as Zarya. But Mei isn’t in the mood to mention that and Zarya probably will not mind.

+++

They end up in the regular soldier’s cafeteria. Only a few people are currently eating in there, but as soon as they enter all their attention is on them. Mei knits her fingers together and tries to move some non-existing bangs behind her ear. With her mostly pastel cold gear she is certain to draw attention. The trendy down time clothes in the Defense Forces seem to be cargo pants and black shirts or, like in Zarya’s case, a tightly fitted body suit. Mei whips her head around abruptly and tries to focus on the food selection. 

 “Come.” Zarya says when she decides she has enough for both of them. They make their way to a mostly full table near the back. When they get closer Mei notices one of the people waving them over from their seat. It’s Petrov and the rest of the squad. Their dishes are already cleared and they’ve all showered. It must be wonderful not to be stuck in interrogation for hours after returning from the Antarctica.

Zarya pilled a heap of dumplings onto her plate along with a dollop of sour cream. After weeks of surviving on cup noodles before getting in the cryo freeze, it’s the most heavenly food she’s ever eaten. The dumplings are warm and hearty, outside dough splitting easily to reveal tender meat. Real meat! It has been too long.

Mei eats maybe half a dozen of them before she slows down a bit. She takes note of Zarya, how she dips her dumplings into the cream first and tries it, too. It’s even better. The cream is cool and creamy and seasoned as well with some herbs that go with the dumplings. The starch and protein are just filling her gut and making her sleepy with their warm heaviness.

While Mei dug into her first meal in ages, the soldier around her bantered and joked with each other. She slows down a tad more and tries to listen in but most of it is in Russian. Still, the mood around the table is light, most likely because all of them are happy none of their comrades died.

“Oh, Ms. Zhou. “ The boy, Kuznetsov the older soldiers called him, that gets her attention is barely old enough to grow peach fuzz. Mei can’t help but wish he was at home with his family instead of here. “They finished up with your drone, I hear.”

“That’s good, right? When can I get Snowball back?”

“Well-“

“First of all, it’s Dr. Zhou, Kuzy. You lot all better remember that.” Lt. Zaryanova glares around the table. Her subordinates don’t take her too seriously, just nod along with smiles on their faces. “Dr. Zhou, I’m sure R&D knows better than most on base how important your work is. Even if we put all the omnic abominations on the scrap heap, it’s no help if our cities get flooded and become uninhabitable. You will have to go and ask them yourself however. They keep a tight lid on their business.”

“I will go after dinner then.” Mei eats some more of the delicious dumplings and tries not to look obviously relieved. “Is there any way I can use a phone later? I need to contact with the Chinese liaison” – if they still exist – “and I would like to speak with my parents.”

Zarya looks thoughtful for a moment. “I’m sorry, Mei, but the base is actually under information black out due to confidentiality rules. I’ll try to speak with General Volskaya and ask if we might make an exception for you. Under official supervision, of course.”

Damn. “Of course. I would be grateful if you could arrange that anyway.” Zarya looking at her with a clearly apologetic expression and only doing her job, but with heavy information restrictions it will be harder to get a sense of what happened in the world while she was away. Never mind striking out with Snowball herself, away from the base. She’s so out of her depth.

The other soldiers pick up their conversation again in English, trying to let Mei in on all of their jokes. She makes the effort to seem happy and unconcerned. The blackout is inconvenient but any of the troops stationed on base will be hard pressed to follow her as soon as she gets Snowball back. Together, they can ground aircrafts and just disappear into the whiteness of the next snowstorm.

“Can you show me where R&D is, Zarya?” Mei takes the opportunity to ask her when they go to return their trays.

The department seems to be living up to the information blackout standard of Volskaya Industries. They have to pass two different check points to even get near their lobby. The stoic guards don’t make any exceptions for Zarya despite her status of minor celebrity on base. Mei has seen several soldiers, men and women, blushing when she greeted them in the hallway. Whatever she did to earn this adoration remains unmentioned and Mei makes a note to ask Kuznetsov about it later.

R&D lobby is well secured but nothing grand like she expected. It’s just a slightly bigger room in the same monotonous grey-green with another watch point-slash-front desk.

Mei goes to approach it alone. Zarya would probably come with her if she asked but she doesn’t want to seem fussy or cowardly. Zarya doesn’t seem like she has patience for people who are either. _It’s just an army secretary. She can do this._ Mei crosses her arms to hide her shaking fingers.

“Hello?” The guy staffing the desk sends her a disinterested look. He doesn’t slow down his gum chewing.

“I’m Mei-Ling Zhou, I was brought- er, rescued today and I want my drone back.” The last part rushes out of her and sounds weirdly demanding. She decides to go with it now. It would look silly to correct herself and she is still mindful of Zarya watching her from behind.

“Your drone?” The guy says without making a move. His staring is very creepy.

“Y-yeah. My drone. It’s this big and white. It’s for weather modification but they said the labs had to check on it. I really need it back.”

“U-huh.” Gum says and taps something on his holo screen. His movements are the epitome of relaxed.

“So, can I get Snowball, I mean it, back?”

Gum chews slowly and pops a small bubble of brilliant cyan. “No.” he says finally.

“No?!” Mei says, floored. Nobody mentioned this possibility to her. This was supposed to be a formality.

“No.” the guy reiterates.

“Uh… Why not?” Mei presses him.

“Classified.”

 _Classified?! What’s that even supposed to mean?_ Mei tries again: “Are they not through with checking yet? Can I come get it later maybe?”

The guy pops his gum twice more while tapping rapidly. “…Classified.”

“Let me.” Zarya cuts in, stepping in front of her.  Mei didn’t notice her coming closer. “Please check again if there’s not a… misunderstanding here. You are _positive_ that you cannot give us any information?”

The jerk actually takes out the gum and tosses it in a bin. “Well, mostly, but of course I can check again if you want-“

“No need.” The voice belongs to a woman clothed in a white skirt suit, looking impeccable and dangerous. She’s leaving R&D through one of the side entries. “Zarya, is this a friend of yours?”

“Yes. General Volskaya, this is Mei-Ling Zhou, the only rescuee from the Antarctica Ecopoint. She’s been wondering about her drone.”

So, this apparently is the leader of the whole Russian Defense Forces and, from what she overheard from the recruits, the scientist who had invented a weapon that gave them the edge over the omnic forces they are fighting with. Mei has no idea how to politely interact with her at all.

“Pleased to meet you.” She bows, hoping it will suffice. Do Generals require a special title in English to address them? The only other high military commander she met so far was Strike Commander Morrison and he had seemed a lot more relaxed about these appearances.

General Volskaya gives her a nod before jumping right into the fray. “We cannot release the drone yet.” She looks at Zarya, who stands to attention and looks as obedient as any soldier in front of their commander. “It is complicated technology and omnics can be quite skilled at concealing their true capabilities. We will tell you when we are done.”

“Can I go inside at least, just see him? Maybe I can help with some of the issues you’re facing.” Mei tries again hands clasped together and willing herself not to fidget them like a little girl.

“We will tell you when we are done.” General Volskaya says. Her tone is frosty. She turns around without another word and vanishes back into R&D, leaving Zarya and Mei stranded outside the locked door.


	2. Other Interested Parties

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mei gets devasting news, a cladestine talk and a visitor. Zarya attempts a heroic rescue. Snowball does not understand carbon-based life.  
> Two cameos are made.

Zarya shows Mei to her temporary quarters. It’s a barren single room with a bed, a dresser and nothing else in it. It reminds her of the last few days in Antarctica. Not sharing it with anyone else it probably all the luxury a military member could imagine. There’s no lock on the door Mei notes.

After Zarya leaves, she drops into a deep sleep on the bed. Cryo freeze left her exhausted and unused to this much activity, she finds. She remembers staying up all night and learning for exams on the next day when she was younger. That Mei might as well have been from a different universe. She can hardly handle the excitement of staying awake for twelve hours in one go right now.

Mei wakes up towards evening. She picks up her glasses and grabs a towel before going off to search for the communal showers. They’re thankfully empty and she takes all the time she needs under the warm spray of the water.

Having washed herself leaves her feeling like a human again, even as she has to slip back into the same clothes she has been wearing since Antarctica. She’s ready to go help Snowball now.

Getting access to the labs without actual permission seems improbable. General Volskaya is also heavily involved with their research, so scrutiny is undoubtedly crushing. Zarya is an officer and seems to know General Volskaya quite well. The general acted familiar with her according to the other soldiers. Zarya seems nice, but there’s no way she would throw away her career to break out Snowball just because Mei asks her. Gum secretary isn’t going to help her in a million years.

She will have to wait until a better opportunity comes along. Until then, she should get a better idea of her overall situation.

With some extra turns Mei manages to find her back to the cafeteria. She’s not sure if she would have to pay, so she forgoes food and heads straight to the table in the back. Unsurprisingly, members from Zarya’s squad are occupying it. They wave her over and make some room so Mei can fit in one of the table corners.

“So.” Kuzy says when Mei can’t make herself join the conversation. She must have been sitting there awkwardly trying not to stare at anyone and being as unobtrusive as possible for a good ten minutes. Mostly she was busy yelling at herself to gather courage. “How was your day?”

“Warm.” Mei doesn’t mean to blurt it out. The whole table around her laughs, though, and that is enough to make her smile hesitantly.

“No wonder! We have heated uniforms and I still felt my ovaries turn to ice when we went out to get you.” A soldier from the back quips.

“I was sure I would lose a toe.”

Mei has to muffle her laughter a bit. “Yes, the temperature can be very difficult at first. It’s nice to be able to wear a t-shirt inside again.”

“How’s your drone? Have they given it back yet?” Kuzy leans forward. Military gossip seems to be his métier.

“Not yet, actually. I’m a bit stranded here without… it.” Mei glances around the table. Most of the soldiers are listening in at their conversation on some level. She’s still new and therefore interesting. “I was actually wondering about catching up? I’ve been frozen for a while. Did anything happen?”

“Ohhh, so much.” Kuzy goes first, naturally. “There was this crazy crime spree last year with the fat guy and giggly fire cracker. They blew up a building, it was amazing!”

Petrov, who has been silent so far, huffs. “Sit down, kid. I doubt that stuff is interesting to the lady. She can read tabloids herself. Now, as for big changes… Vishkar is a pretty new global player. Big corporation from India, they’ve been striking up a lot of deals with countries. Restructured a major city in Brazil recently. They built almost everything from light.”

“Really? That’s amazing.” She hadn’t expected the technology to be ready for commercial application yet.

“Science geeks. Same everywhere.” Kuzy snorts with amusement. “Meanwhile, the anorganic cancers here are attacking again and the ones in the Himalayas are pretending to have souls.”

“I heard those monks can suck out your blood through a metal pipe and use it as fuel.” An unknown voice chimes in.

Mei holds out her hands to calm everyone down. “Wait, wait. Monks? What do you mean?”

“I guess you would have missed that as well.” Petrov folds his arms. “There’s been some, I guess, ‘omnics’ that claim they have found religion. They’re dressing up like monks and float around spouting a lot of stuff about peace and everyone being one in their pupils. Goddamn sham if you ask me, just trying to bide their time until they can properly attack.” He shrugs. “But what do I know. Not like anyone is listening to us, instead they’re falling over themselves to pretend those things are alive and are going to have mercy on them.”

“Isn’t Overwatch keeping an eye on that?” Mei asks. The table gets quiet all of a sudden. Mei’s stomach gets heavy with dread. Kuzy tries to say something but someone else pulls him back by his shoulder.

“Dr. Zhou…” Petrov starts. _Mei is fine_ she wants to say but it gets stuck in her throat. Whatever he has to say seems more important right now. “Overwatch doesn’t exist anymore.”

“What?” She can feel her eyes bugging out of her head. He said… But that can’t be real. She misheard or there’s some sort of technicality she’s missing. Overwatch doesn’t exist?! How can an international agency, funded and approved for years to come when she went to sleep just up and vanish. There’s bureaucracy and agreements in place – starting anything at that level is an enormous task, but once it gets going these organisations do not vanish in the span of a decade. And what about the omnic attacks on Russia?

“I think they just exploded or something one day and it was too bothersome to rebuild the whole thing.” Kuzy cuts in, apparently allowed to talk again after the bomb was dropped.

“But who’s mediating human-omnic conflicts now? And what do you mean, exploded?!”

Kuzy looks at her like she is the one spouting disastrous news. “Doctor, no offense, but there’s no talking or agreeing with omnics, they want us dead and we protect ourselves. There’s no need for such an agency, especially in Russia.”

Petrov puts a hand on his shoulder until he calms down. “It was an explosion in the headquarters in Zurich. I don’t think they ever figured out why or how, but it leveled central command and a lot of the upper level of the organization.”

Mei had not been to Zurich often, but that was where almost all decisions were made for Watchpoints around the world. “What about Winston?” She can’t help asking after the science director first.

“Winston?” None of the soldiers seem to recognize the name.

“He’s. He’s a gorilla. He’s from the moon.” Mei adds, hoping to jog their memories.

Kuzy puffs his chest. “Oh, the talking monkey? He vanished to somewhere I think.”

_That’s… actually not very helpful._

Petrov sees how the news destroyed her and jumps in. “Overwatch has never really had influence in Russia. You can probably find better information on the holonet if you get the ok from General Volskaya. The honcho in charge had this big funeral and there were debates about whether we should send flower or not, that’s all I remember.” He pats her shoulder. “Sorry, doc.”

+++

Mei doesn’t say much after that. One of the soldiers dutifully escorts her back to her quarters. She thanks him quietly and goes inside. She keeps the lights dark; she is apt enough to operate in near darkness.

She slips out of her shoes and goes straight to bed. She feels exhausted and just decides to roll herself into the blanket like a burrito. When she was younger she liked to knot the ends of blankets together above her breasts and pretend she was wearing a long flowing dress, the kind that would never fit her in the store or just make her look depressingly pregnant. She’s not that playful anymore. She just wants warm feet and enough fabric to almost cover her head.

It takes a while to perfect her roll but eventually, it is comfortable. She breathes and stares out of her fortress of warmth. Overwatch is done, kaput, gone. They didn’t send any rescue missions because they exploded. A lot of her friends are likely dead. Winston, Letov, all the permanent science staff... Fuck.

She already lost one set of people in the last few days and now, the rest of her friends are wiped out in one swoop. Not that Mei could have done anything about it; it was already in the past. She just didn’t get the message because she was busy being frozen and useless.

Who’s left out there for her? Is anyone even still waiting for her to come back? Her parents, her family, maybe, if they didn’t get killed in a new brewing Omnic Crisis. Some friends she made in university that went on to teach elsewhere instead of working for an international taskforce and she hasn’t contacted for ages.  And finally Snowball, stuck in a lab and pretending to be less than they are.

Mei rolls her burrito a bit tighter and tries to keep sniffling to a minimum. Belle Starr wouldn’t lay in bed and waste time crying. But now that it started, the tears come involuntarily. Snowball will need to wait a bit longer.

At some point, she slowly stops crying. It’s not linear and she can feel the tear reflex coming and going as her eyes crinkle and the corners of her mouth keep trying to crumble. But, somehow, it ebbs away.

Mei wipes some of the fluids from her face with the blanket and unwraps herself. She walks wobbly over to the desk and checks for some tissues. Score! She blows the snot accumulated in her nose into it.

Someone knocks on her door as she’s about to decide if she can make it unseen to the showers and back again. She goes to open it, as she has no idea who it could be but she has no illusions that her privacy is little more of a curtesy right now as actually extant.

It’s Zarya. A smile stretches across her face when she sees Mei despite her red eyes and the dent she undoubtedly made in her hair by sleeping on the side. “Dr.—Mei.” She straightens up, perfect posture making her even more gigantic.

Mei can’t help giggling, holding a hand in front of her mouth. “Dr. Mei? I could write my next paper under that name.” She mirrors Zarya, straightening up as well. Surprisingly, it helps. She feels a bit better. “Come in, please.”

She waves Zarya inside, closes the door behind her and realizes it’s still completely dark. Zarya is faster than her, finding the light switch without any hesitation.

“It seems Dr. Mei also has night vision. She’s probably a hard opponent to beat in a fight.” Zarya sobers up a bit. “Mei… I heard from the guys. How are you doing?” The concern in her voice is obvious.

“I’m…” Mei pauses, actually unsure. What is she? “Not alright.” is what she settles on at the end. “You didn’t tell me about Overwatch. Why would you not mention that first before carrying me back to Russia?”

Zarya rubs her neck and looks to the side, exactly the same as Mei when she can’t figure out a good answer. Her hair looks even better in disarray. “Why didn’t you say anything after the debriefing?” Mei prompts again, more forceful. She knows the feeling of freezing up very well and yet she can’t help the anger. _Because if it had been her she would have told Zarya as soon as possible and not let her find out on her own in a public place._

Zarya freezes in her pose, her eyes locked with Mei’s. “I forgot.” She admits and shrugs her shoulders. “I’m sorry, that was not fair to you.”

“I forgive you.” Mei slumps back on her bed, dejected nonetheless. “I just wish I didn’t have to find out this way.” No, that’s not just it, isn’t it?

“You wish it hadn’t happened.” Bullseye. Zarya sits next to her on top of the former burrito and steadies her with one hand. Mei pulls her legs up and curls them to the side.

“Yes.” She says in a small voice. She wishes her friends and coworkers would be okay and she still had somewhere to belong.

Zarya hums thoughtfully. “I can’t do anything about that. But I also came to tell you R&D gave your drone the all-clear. You can come get it.”

All at once Mei is alert again. “Really?!”

“Yes. We can go now, if you want.”

+++

Not half an hour later, Mei is hugging Snowball in front of an exceptionally grumpy Gums. Snowball has been making offended beeps about their treatment in the testing parts the whole time. Mei is not able to pay proper attention right now, too happy to have Snowball by her side again. And besides, she is not sure if it would go over well if she started talking to the ‘drone’ like ‘it’ was a person.

“Is there an outside area I could use to check Snowball’s functions?” She asks Zarya. “A training ground or something.”

“I think you can get a corner in the yard.”

“Thank you. Please lead the way.” She has to check Snowball for damage, but that’s not the only reason she needs a bit of room for her own. If it was just mechanical issues she is looking for, she could have asked for a workshop.

Zarya leads her out to a piece of frozen tundra, complete with hoar frost rimmed moss and sparse grass. The perimeter is marked by fences on all sides. It’s currently winter here, which makes sense. If you want to lead a rescue mission to the South Pole summer weather and ice on the southern hemisphere is essential.

There’re no other soldiers besides them here. Good. Mei makes a beeline for the far corner, right next to the double fence topped with razor wire. “Do you require any more help?”  Zarya asks.

“I have it.” Mei smiles up at her, Snowball still clutched in her arms.

“I’ll be over there.” Zarya nods towards the barracks, stopping another commander to chat.

Mei starts with the general systems checks for a weather modification drone, not reacting to any beeps from Snowball. It takes her back.

The class was a requirement for every Overwatch employee. They were not informed which department was responsible or who would be teaching. The first half was led by an omnic instructor, a severe model whose head did not have human features and watched her fellow scientists with a single lens camera.

“Information security is paramount for every staff member.” They began. What followed was a complicated set of instructions on password security, how to encode transmissions and how to make sure backups were safe. At least that was the part Mei understood. Off to the side another omnic translated or added information in blinks for the omnic members of the science staff. As always, ensuring protection against hackers was even more vital for them.

The second instructor was human, a dark skinned man with a perfectly groomed goatee. No name tags or rank insignia on his clothes.

They split the group into omnics and organic then. The synthetics left while Mei and the others remained nervously behind.

“Don’t worry.” The instructor smiled genuinely. Somehow it was at once concerting and reassuring. “This part is the same topic but different angles. As members of Overwatch, you are very interesting to a lot of people. We already covered how to ensure data stays safely within these walls. However, there’s one more mobile component that can easily give access to it all: You.” He paused dramatically.

No one said a word. Personally, Mei didn’t think it was that impressive, since the hands buried in the instructor’s hoodie pockets did weaken the effect of tough drill sergeant and made him seem more lenient. Straight spine not with-standing. However, it might hurt his feelings if she didn’t act like it was. She kept a serious face.

“Blackmail, kidnapping, torture – just to give you a general idea about what might happen to you. And if you think you’re tough, imagine it happening to one of your family members or a friend. One you like, of course.” The guy started pacing as he talked. She wondered who he had in mind when he did his spiel.

“Everyone breaks under these conditions at some point. Me included. There’s no self-help book on how to resist. A professional will find your weak point and use it, hell, even an amateur can get lucky and have you falling apart. If you have conviction, you might hold out longer. Or not. I can’t promise to any of you you will come out okay. These experiences change you.”

Mei curled her arms around herself. Whoever that was he didn’t seem the type to exaggerate. She had known that scientists were sometimes targets – just the history of climatology in the last century was littered with defamation and a few infamous assaults by people who tried to prove numbers wrong with violence against the messengers. But that was in the past. They had managed to move past and onward. She had never considered that today she could still face the same dangers.

“Good news is: you’re part of Overwatch. If you get into anything, I will personally see to it that you will get out of it. Now, what I can show you is how to hold out as long as you can for us and why. So let’s get into gear.”

What the unnamed instructor went on to teach them was possible the scariest class Mei had to sit through. It was only beat by that one course where they had charted out long term effects of global warming and how close they were constantly skirting to the edge of complete environmental upside down.

Now, she is grateful. Between tips for passing out quickly they had also talked about the possibility of physical surveillance and how to evade it. The Defense Forces are not going to let her do anything without some observation nearby. Whether it’s the squad, Zarya or hidden sensors, they are sure not leave any stone unturned.

The guy with the steely eyes and full of the urge to protect the civilian members is probably dead right now, having died trying to defend from its eventual doom. Mei does remember his lesson though.

She finishes Snowball’s check. Clearly there were attempts to brute force their way inside, but the chassis seal in unbroken. The dents and buffs seem to be the only physical damage. And Snowball took care of all attempts to hack their programming.

_unauthorised access attempt – no mei - no ping back_ Snowball reports.

Mei can’t answer. Snowball makes a _?_ noise and repeats the message. _audio sensor status?_ they add.

Zarya is still on the other side of the lawn, occupied with a sit up competition and glancing over at Mei from the distance. They’re right next to the fence dotted with a lot of possible surveillance. Mei cannot answer Snowball. She can’t.

She pretends to make some notes on a paper while squeezing her eyes shut. This is not a time to cry. Snowball needs to understand what situation they’re in – that one false move may get both of them imprisoned or killed. They are not familiar with humans and this is what Mei has to teach them, now.

She manages to get the tearing up under control, stuffs the paper piece into a random pocket and stands up. She takes a deep breathe. This is going to suck.

“ _Xuěqiú_ , lets test the solid precipitation generator. Smallest radius and use me as a center, please.” Solid precipitation is, all in all, just fancy talk for snow. That’s how the generator works; it makes a localized miniature snowstorm. Snowball’s line of weather modification drones has other functions as well, but none are nearly as visually impressive.

Properly used by the likes of Boltz and Arrhenius, they can temporarily seal glacier fissures and stabilise at risk sections. Climate however plays the long game and scientists know this. The snow storm function is at best a marketing tool and dazzling an audience. Data collection is much more crucible to their work.

Snowball deploys over her. Around Mei an icy snow flurry whips up controlled by the drone. The cold is enough to freeze humans in seconds when at full power. Snowball already knows how much chill Mei can handle thankfully.

She has to hunker down and pulls her fur hood to cover her ears. Her glasses protect her eyes enough that they only tear up a bit.

“ _Xuěqiú_!” Mei calls. They circle around her even as occasionally more flakes are added to the blizzard.  It’s pure chaos. Exactly what Mei wanted to make sure nothing can be overheard. The physical force of a natural disaster forms a protective layer around them.

_mei – communicate now?_ Snowball beeps at her.

Mei wets her freezing lips with her tongue. “Yes. X _uěqiú_ , the people here are not letting us go for a while. Overwatch ended processing while I was in cryostasis. We’re on our own, do you understand?”

_just mei and_ _xuěqiú – stationary?_

“Yes. We will need to stay and follow the rules of the people around us.” Mei has to squint until she can make out Snowball flitting around her. Their patterns have distressing wobble in it.

Snowball is slowly closing up to Mei. _additional parameters – content?_

“Ah. I don’t know all of them yet. Here is what I got so far:

Don’t go anywhere without me. You need to stay near.” Snowball makes a noise that Mei hasn’t heard them use yet. The manual describes it as ‘discontent’ or ‘veto’. It was Boltz’ favourite noise to use. When she asked Arrhenius how she would translate it she told her it meant ‘fuck’.

“Yeah.” Her mind automatically brings up Katya Volskaya in her corporate skirt suit, white fabric as pristine as if she had just pulled it out of the closet. “We still have to follow them, ok?”

She has to wait for a few moments until Snowball beeps _affirmative_.

“Second: we cannot talk to each other. If you try to tell me something with anyone near, I have to pretend not to hear you. We can’t… do discussion or anything like that for a while. And no arguments!”

Another omnic cursing tirade she misses due to the storm but Snowball assents eventually.

“You have to tell me what you are going to do. The government here and some of the people don’t like synthetic lifeforms acting autonomous.” Snowball lets out a truly offended sound. “Sorry, I know, I know, I’m sorry, I would like to leave too. But until then tell me what you want to do and I will pretend to instruct you. It’s slow, sorry, I know.”

_reason? – biased – ineffective process - xuěqiú + mei?_ Snowball’s answer becomes more high pitched and faster as they whirl around Mei. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what else to do. They are not letting us go and you need to be okay if we get an opportunity to go!”

Snowball still doesn’t like the idea and makes it known when something slams into Mei’s side, knocking her flat on the ground. Snowball, probably sensing that Mei isn’t going to answer them when someone is near, becomes silent and starts to disperse the snowstorm.

The air clears up almost instantly and Mei can see what knocked her over: It’s Zarya. Her uniform hat fell down somewhere into the snow and only leaves her with a wind-swept pink undercut. Mei has swooned for less. Zarya for her part is bracketing in Mei so she is shielded by body. Her whole attention is on Snowball – she’s tense, waiting for any move from the drone, almost ready to fight against Snowball, a light weight science drone without any weapon capabilities.

Mei clings to Zarya on instinct, one hand tangled in her top, the other grasping a tattooed bicep for dear life. Above her, Zarya is screaming at Snowball. The howling winds provide the sound track to her snarls.

“Stop!” Mei yells, hoping Zarya can somehow hear her. She remains completely focused on Snowball.

Thankfully, Snowball senses her outburst and reacts. They slow down the spinning, snow production stopping for good in a matter of seconds. The blizzard does keep up a moment longer and then the flurry disperses.

“Get away!” Zarya bellows, her veins popping red at her temples. She stands and Mei, who is trying to hold her back, is dragged along with her. Fuck. Mei is dangling a feet above ground but she can’t let go.

“Zarya, don’t! It’s okay.” Zarya glances over without answering her. She is still firmly situated between Mei and Snowball. The drone is fully landed now and blinking simulated eyes at them. Thankfully they are obeying Mei’s orders and not attempting to communicate. Mei is not sure what Zarya would do if there were beeps or anything language like coming from them.

Zarya might have stamina to stay like this all day but Mei is sick of dangling in the air. She lets go and falls maybe half a meter until she’s back on steady ground. Then she steps around Zarya.

“Dr. Zhou, no!” Zarya jerks Mei back behind her in a flash. Her chest is heaving from flat breaths coming fast.

Mei takes the hand still buried in her fur collar and gently unfastens it. “Zarya, no, Aleksandra, it’s fine. There’s no danger. Snowball was just testing all the functions!”

Zarya snorts with disbelief. “No. You almost got frozen again.” She takes a lock of hair from Mei and tugs on it emphatically. It’s stiff and the ice incasing the strand breaks like a branch when Zarya tries to bend it. “This was clearly an attack. I will not let you be killed by this abomination.”

“Please, believe me! Snowball is harmless!” Mei tries to push her way out of Zarya’s beefy arms and Zarya actually lets her. Mei stops right after because, honestly, she wasn’t expecting to succeed and now has run out of steps planned.

“Look.” Mei starts, making sure she has Zarya’s full attention. Outside of the occasional glare at Snowball, she gets it. “I’m going over there and collect my drone. Nothing will happen. I just didn’t think this through.”

“Didn’t think it through?” Zarya sounds like her thesis adviser when she presented her absolute bullshit at their first meeting. Three days without sleep and too much coffee took part of the blame for that disaster in Mei’s mind. “That whatever you’re testing is clearly a lethal blizzard?”

Mei picks Snowball up and puts them back into place in the harness. They are still quiet, mindful of Zarya. “It’s not really a blizzard. In fact,” Mei stops, remembering the topic at hand. “Ok, never mind that. I meant I didn’t really think about the optics of this test. How it would look to an unknowing outsider. That was my mistake. I apologize, Lt. Zaryanova.” Mei bows deeply.

“It’s fine. And please stop being formal, you make me uncomfortable.” Zarya waves her up again. “I hope you don’t mind if I still don’t trust your drone. Even if it’s not dangerous to you, that kind of weather would very much harm any other soldier on this base. If the bolted legion manages to hack this thing they are sure to do damage.”

Zarya and Mei start the way back to the low concrete buildings of the base. “I can understand those concerns, Zarya, but it’s not something I worry about. Snowball doesn’t have wireless capabilities. It would be useless in the wilderness of Antarctica – satellite routes and bypassing are not a real priority there. And to download data we use a cable since the big files would take forever otherwise. Hard to ‘hack’ Snowball without actually being next to them.”

Zarya ponders that for a while. “So you’re saying… it’s a Snowball’s chance in hell.”

Mei can’t help and giggles. “Stop it, please!”

+++

Zarya nevertheless insists that Mei leaves Snowball in her room on base for now.

“You’re not endearing yourself to anyone if you keep carrying around this oversized power guzzler.”

“But-“ Mei tries to protest and is promptly shut up.

“It’s a robot. And everyone here thinks ‘omnic’ if they see a strange robot. My former roommate still jumps whenever she sees a cleaning drone and let me tell you, that’s progress. Before, she just shot them.” Zarya has her arms crossed, looking stern. She is really intimidating in that pose. Also, her arms are bulging with muscles and Mei feels like she might faint if she stares at them for too long. “So, I don’t care if you call it drone and so on, but you can’t carry it around. Someone is bound to try to murder you.”

Reluctantly, Mei obeys and puts Snowball down on the bed in her room. There’s no real window, just a small slit on the top of one wall letting in some light. Mei couldn’t reach it if she tried. Hopefully it will be enough to keep Snowball’s solar array powered.

They end up in a dingy rec room for the common soldiers, a concession to the fact that Mei is technically a civilian and therefore not allowed into the officer’s lounge. There are quite a few people, some of them clustered on an orange couch in front of a TV, others playing some cards to the side.

No one seems surprised to see Zarya and quite a few shout greetings. Clearly she’s been here often enough to become a comrade instead of a supervising officer bursting in.

They raid the vending machine in the corner – a lime green energy drink for Zarya, some tea for Mei – and Zarya convinces Mei to let her teach Mei how to play pool. She gets the table ready and hands Mei one of the cues.

“I’ll let you start. First, put your hand here.” Zarya crowds her against the pool table and pulls her body snug to Mei’s back. Mei can feel her rear brushing against Zarya and starts blushing. They bend over the table together and Zarya takes her time as she shows her how to stabilise the cue with her hand.

“Now, you want to aim for the center of the ball.” Her right hand is running down Mei’s arm and wraps around her wrist. Together, they experimentally slide the cue back and forth through her hand. A few times. Mei is glad Zarya can’t see her face right now since she has to be as red as a stop light. “Now, visualize and execute, Mei!”

Mei pokes the white ball with gusto on her call and sends it flying into the neat triangular rows of the colored balls. It hits well, breaking them apart as they fly in different directions. No ball falls into a pocket, though.

“Well done!” Zarya rumbles at her back. “It’s my turn. I’ll show you how it’s done.”  She circles the table like a hawk, looking for an opportunity on the velvet beneath her. As she lines up the shot, her body bows gracefully. Her aim is true: the cue ball hits the green six ball and pockets it neatly. Not a fancy trick shot, but clearly getting the job done.

Zarya straightens with a big grin. “I picked the solids,” She rounds the table, looking for the next opportunity. “Because I do nothing by _halves_.”

Quite a few of the soldiers in earshot groan and Mei grimaces at Zarya. “That was awful.”

With the proudest grin Mei has ever seen Zarya says: “It was abhorrent.” She somehow still manages to look absolutely dashing and handsome despite the truly lurid pun she uttered just seconds ago.

Mei can’t help it, she has to laugh again, hard enough to almost double over. Clutched in her hands is the cue as if it will help her stay on her feet.

“Hah!” Zarya exclaims as if she won something by making Mei laugh like that. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep putting _solid_ effort into my banter.”

That gets her another wave of giggling and slowly Mei can calm down once more. “Okay, I think I’m done.”

“Good. I can keep demonstrating my so—“The sound of sirens cuts Zarya off. The normal light switches off as emergency lights activate, bathing the whole room in eerie red.

“Zarya, you should—“

“Mei, I have to—“They both stop talking in synch.

“I’ll see you.” Mei says. Zarya gives her a curt nod before she takes off through the door.

It would probably be smart to stay in the rec room, away from whatever important part of the base is being attacked. But people are in danger and even if Mei doesn’t like fighting, she hates bullies with a passion and cannot desert the people here to fend alone. Not when she could help.

She takes off in the direction of her quarters.

As soon as she opens the door, Snowball is flying in her face, beeping so fast she has a hard time understanding them. Almost half of them are the little questioning noise.

_mei - status? – military officer – status? – in vicinity? – base – status?_

“I’m 100%, Snowball, just got a little flushed from physical activities.” She scoops up the little harness for the drone and puts it on in record time. Hopefully that way Snowball will escape any scrutiny. “Can you specify military officer? That’s a bit vague.”

Snowball ponders silently for a bit as their processors consider what might be a distinctive feature for an organic life form. Mei takes the time to make her way to a central corridor and follow some soldiers. Only way to find out what is going on and maybe give some help.

_…peak physical strength_ Snowball adds at last. Their beep is the equivalent of a whisper, right behind Mei’s shoulder. No way can anyone hear it over the alarms.

“Oh, you mean Zarya?” The soldiers take a left and Mei follows. Somewhere at the end of it she can hear the distant sound of a commotion. Yells in Russian, feet pounding concrete and something that almost sounds like gun fire. Wonderful. “She went to investigate the alarms. She should be alright.”

The corridor ends in an industrial looking hall housing several exoskeletons. They’re all at least as big as a two story house. Mei stares at the nearest, taking in the whole size of it. The whole right hand is just a massive canon. There’s just a small unshielded cage at the top, presumptively for the pilot. Maybe they use hard light shields for better visibility? Who knows.

A beep from Snowball startles her into motion again. The soldiers are spread out across the room and aiming for something on the far side. Mei adjusts her glasses and squints. A humanoid figure seems to run on the maintenance walkways above, leaving a trail of purple sometimes. Then, it vanishes again.

The soldiers fire a moment longer before they realize they have lost their target. Mei recognizes Kuzy in one group and sidles up to them, trying to look like she belongs.

“Snowball, can your sensors find anything?” Mei asks quietly.

_affirmative_ comes the answer in a second. _atmospheric disturbances – south – no visible detection_

“Wind?” Mei’s eyebrows shoot up. If whatever was up above didn’t vanish and instead went invisible, wouldn’t they cause a draft when moving? Could that be it?

_moving north_

Mei flicks her eyes frantically about, trying to somehow detect an invisible enemy slowly coming nearer. She’s just as helpless as the soldiers with their fancy headgear, seeing nothing. And still, Snowball keeps telling her something is coming closer. Her heart beat hammers inside her ears.

The door behind her does not crash open per se, which is a bit bewildering. It’s an automatic sliding door and just makes a little vent noise. Zarya, however, declares her arrival loudly and with enthusiasm. “Soldaty!” Every soldier’s attention snaps to her.

She’s wielding a _cannon_ , not an oven pipe where you stick in an RPG, no, the fucking _cannon_ that is mounted on the mechs behind her. Her muscles are strained with the weight and Mei is sure she is the only one that could actually pick it up.

“Ogon’ po gotovnosti!“ The cannon fires a black ball that passes over the heads of the soldiers in an arc and meets the ground maybe fifteen meters away from them. The munition activates and _pulls_ hard. Mei yelps with surprise and clings to a nearby pipe to keep her balance. It feels like wind or a tornado, but Snowball doesn’t register it as such. So, by elimination, it’s an artificial gravity field, immobilizing anyone in reach and sucking them in.

The invisible intruder gets caught up as well. Their camouflage fails and reveals a woman getting sucked to the middle of the field. She wears so much purple that it has to be her favourite colour. Her hair, her coat dress, some sort of military yoga pants, nails, even her slightly ancient machine gun sport it. At least Zarya wears a hat when in combat. But concerns about stealth probably only apply to people who can’t go invisible.

The woman struggles for a moment but can’t break the hold of the field. Kuzy and the other soldiers take aim and fire without hesitation. And just as the bullets are about to reach her, the woman vanishes in a burst of violet light. For good, it seems. None of the bullets hit her and when the gravity field powers down even Snowball can no longer detect any presence.

Zarya hefts the cannon on her shoulder. “Split up in teams and search the grounds. We have to find the intruder.” They are fast to follow orders and Mei tries to leave under their cover.

“Mei, stay behind.” Zarya orders her when she’s maybe three feet from the door. Mei turns around reluctantly and goes back with hunched shoulders. Zarya looks tired. Mei feels guilt roiling in her gut and folds into herself even more.

Zarya sighs. “I wish you had stayed back. We drove the intruder back, but that wasn’t guaranteed. We just rescued you.”

Mei scratches the back of her head. “Sorry, I’m sorry, but I can’t just stand by while you are in danger.” It’s a reason but no excuse. She looks down, unable to meet Zarya’s eyes.

“You’re still a civilian. And,” Here Zarya’s lips curls with distaste. “You brought your drone. That wasn’t necessary.”

Mei looks up with surprise. “No.” She says and straightens up, trying to look as convicted as she feels. “I can’t leave Snowball behind. No matter is the soldiers here have some bad associations, it contains all of the remaining data we gathered in Antarctica. If I lose them, the last decade of my life was pointless.”

Zarya holds her gaze for an unbearable moment. Her eyes don’t twinkle like usual and Mei can only see Lt. Zaryanova before her. “I won’t say ‘Fair enough’ because I don’t think it is. I still think taking that drone with you endangers yourself and others, even just by distracting them. But what’s done is done. I’ll bring you back to your room where you are safe. No discussion.”

Mei nods, intimidated by the stern tone. They had laughed and maybe flirted just half an hour ago. And now, nothing. Zarya is pissed and their communication has run cold. She’s getting whiplash from this emotional roulette. The way back to her quarters is without incidents. Zarya doesn’t lock the door after she leaves, but this time Mei can’t bring herself to sneak out again.

+++

Petrov comes to fetch her for breakfast the next morning. Mei is still exhausted from yesterday and Petrov doesn’t seem interested in talking, so they just make their way down to the cafeteria. Mei picks up some scrambled eggs, a rye roll, some jam and a cup of green tea. They don’t seem too expensive for Petrov to afford.

They’re one of the firsts at the table. The others are quiet, eating single mindedly or warming their hands on their coffee cups.

Zarya joins them a few minutes later. She just grunts a greeting at Mei and starts eating. Things are so awkward compared to the day before. Now, no one seems to be in the mood to talk and Mei already finished eating, so she can’t even distract herself. If only she could go back to her room without anyone noticing. Maybe that’s why the intruder yesterday could just vanish, because she also feels like throwing up when too many people pay attention to her.

“Did anyone get hurt?“ Mei just says something out so the strange mood will resolve. Everyone turns their heads to stare at her like she just broke a fundamental law of physics.

 Zarya recovers her wits first. “Some. Five of our own got shot and Kuzy broke an arm because our guest threw him down the stairs. But at least no one died this time.”

Mei looked up with surprise and ends up studying Zarya’s face. She still guards her emotions with stern concentration. “So that wasn’t the first time they came here?”

“Second, actually. About a month ago we were attacked. The intruder was accompanied – or rather accompanying – a mercenary killer and a sniper working for Talon. We lost a mech and about a dozen of our best guards. We could stop the killers but not the intruder.” Zarya looks to the side as if contemplating her failures. “You saw how stealthy she is. Even with Graviton Surge I can’t hold her in one place. I once believed this to be impossible. But she can do it, escape the most powerful force in the universe.”

“Did you catch her after she vanished?”

Zarya frowns. “No. She didn’t leave a trace. She will come back again, I’m sure. And then her arrogance will be her downfall.”

“That seems plausible.” The intruder had been self-assured enough to not be deterred. “What do you think is her goal? She came alone this time, right? Did she just come to gloat?”

“That’s classified.” Zarya sets down her cutlery with more force than necessary, rattling the whole table. “You don’t have to worry about it as long as you stay away.”

Mei just nods as her questions are subdued with ruthless efficiency. Zarya essentially just ordered everyone else around them to silence on the topic, too. So there goes her plan b.

They’re putting away their trays when Zarya tugs on Mei’s sleeve. She waves her over to a semi-deserted hall way corridor

“I just got word from General Volskaya: She didn’t decide whether or not you will get phone and internet privileges, but you are going to have a visitor.”

Mei stops in mid-fidget and stares. „A… visitor? Did the general mention anything else, like nationality?”

Zarya shakes her head. „I know about as much as you. I think letting them see you is a favor from the Defense Forces to whoever made the suggestion.  I’ll escort you to the meeting.“

They stay of the interrogation room this time and instead Zarya steers Mei towards the center of the complex. Most of the space here seems to be used for communications and mission control from what Mei can see through slightly opened doors. People demonstratively shut them whenever they catch her staring so she tries to keep her gaze locked on Zarya’s broad shoulders.

Zarya stops in front of an empty briefing. There’s a coffee machine and a water cooker in the corner, along with some cups.

“Can you make some coffee as well? I hear your guest enjoys it. I’ll go get them in the meantime.” With that, Zarya leaves her alone. When Mei is done with preparing the drinks, she turns her attention to the rest of the room. It’s positively barren outside a grey table and chairs and the chairs don’t even look comfortable.

“Dr. Zhou, I presume.“ Mei turns around fast enough she stumbles against one of the chairs and loses her balance. The woman who startled her reaches out and pushes Mei’s other shoulder down. It’s a deliberate, precise gesture as if she has done it a thousand times before. Mei finds her balance again easily. “Careful. You need to work on your balance.” The woman quirks her head a bit, taking Mei in.

“You requested to meet me?” Mei goes and grabs the cups she prepared, handing over the coffee to the newcomer. She sits down in one of the chairs facing the door and studies the other.

The other woman inclines her head thoughtfully. She has her hair in a bun that only leaves one strand to the side of her face. With the headset she is wearing it makes her seem curious and innocent. What draws Mei’s attention the most are the intelligent yellow eyes watching her with close attention.

“Yes. I am Satya Vaswani, an architect representing Vishkar cooperation. We recently heard of your rescue by the Russian Defense Forces.” Satya sits down on the opposite site, smoothing her overalls in the same motion.

“Vishkar…?” Mei props her head on one hand, thinking hard. “You were working on applying hard light technology on a bigger scale, right? I think I heard about some of your presentations.”

Satya’s smile is small but very much brightens the room. “That’s correct. We— that is, not me personally, but Vishkar cooperation – have started implementing it for architecture projections. You’re well informed, Dr. Zhou.”

Mei blushes at the compliment, rubbing the back of her neck. “I’m afraid I might be a few years out of date. But this kind of engineering is not really my forte. So I’m not sure why Vishkar would take interest in me.”

“Vishkar strives for order and harmony. Controlling global warming is essential if mankind wants to survive. We have always believed this to be the way. Overwatch pursued these goals in the past, but now no one is standing up for our planet on a global scale. Vishkar has been fortunate and expanded its influence quite far while you were frozen. We think we are ready to take a leadership role in the fight against global warming. We are in need a skilled climatologist to be the head of this venture.”

“Me.” Mei feels stunned stating the obvious. Of course, there are better and more experienced climatologists around. Arrhenius is the first to come to mind, a moment before the crushing realization that she is still frozen in Antarctica.

Yellow eyes flash as they meet hers. “Indeed, Dr. Zhou, you. Would you be willing to consider this offer?”

That’s it. A chance to leave, to go home again, to get Snowball to safety. A chance to keep working in her field and make an impact on the future, all offered on a silver plate. And maybe she can convince Vishkar to mount their own expedition to Antarctica to recover the others.

She would have to leave Zarya though. What would Zarya think if she just changed sides without even having properly thanked her? Does it really matter in the long run?

Mei ponders her choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zarya's two lines in Russian read  
> \- "Soldiers!" and  
> \- "Fire at will!".  
> The second is her ultimate call out, of course.  
> Thanks to Asidia for helping me out with Russian knowledge.


	3. Blasted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mei makes further acquaintance with Satya Vaswani to her displeasure and takes up a hobby or two. Everyone gets a reminder of the situation. Snowball is protective.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains description of a panic/anxiety attack. If you wish to skip, it is the last scene. Please read responsibly for your own health.

The architect waits with the patience of a stone monument defying the seasons for Mei’s answer. Compared to stone, even glaciers crumble under this kind of pressure.

„I need more time to think, Ms. Vaswani.” Mei admits finally. “I don’t think I can take your offer until I at least know what happened to my colleagues after Overwatch… dissolved.”

Vaswani jerks her head to the side. Her bangs sway with momentum. “Are you not living in the past? Everyone who worked in Overwatch has already moved on. If you want to move on from entering cryostasis, you have to make your own way.”

It hits a nerve. Mei had been fast whenever her professors wanted her to learn something, but her peers were always faster when it came to _living_. Some of them made friends in a night where Mei needed months to have enough audacity to ask someone to come over for tea. Cautious and shy defined Mei outside the classroom, her parents said. Timid and meek is what she heard, unspoken.

So, is this her dithering around making a choice again? Just as indecisive as before while pretending to stick with an organization that abandoned her and doesn’t exist anymore?

“Maybe you are right. But I can’t help it. In my mind, I’m still operating under Overwatch’s wing. At least I need someone to report to what we found and what data we gathered.”

“You could publish your findings with Vishkar. There’s nothing that would prevent you doing just that. The academic work, after all, is your own.” Vaswani tugs on her hair, hard. It looks painful, but her face smooths and she seems more in control of her emotions.

“No. I owe it to Overwatch, not you. If I don’t, I let my colleagues down. I’m bound to do this.” Mei straightens herself and meets Vaswani’s unblinking gaze. To her surprise, the architect looks away first.

“Are you really going to think this over, Dr. Zhou? You very much sound like you already decided that you don’t want to take our offer.”

That jab hits and Mei flinches. Vaswani seems to have intuitive knowledge on where to push at her most painful wounds. “It’s not like that.” It even sounds weak in her own ears. “I can’t decide this lightly. I’m sure you understand.”

 Vaswani’s face hardens. “I’ll see you later.” She says curtly and leaves promptly. She flicks off the light and leaves Mei in darkness.

+++

Mei quickly grows bored over the next few days. The soldiers around her have drills and guard duties to keep them busy when they’re not out in the field. Mei sees the small troop that rescued her during meal times, but outside of that she is left to her own devices outside of that, provided she doesn’t intrude.

She spends her time exploring her boundaries in the care of the Defense forces. It turns out she is not wanted in many places. R&D is as closed off to her as any weapon storages or the officer’s areas in general. She makes due, going on walks or drinking tea in silence next to Snowball in her quarters.

Neither Vaswani nor General Volskaya show their faces anywhere near her. Kuzy and the others certainly seem to know all about what they do and think: They were seen having a meal together, General Volskaya wanted a demonstration of the hard light technology or Vaswani was shadowing some training exercises for the new generation of Russian mechs. Vishkar and Volskaya Industries are discovering their mutual interests in these tales.

Vishkar’s representative and the General are clearly building a fruitful relationship with each other and everyone at the HQ is buzzing about it. Mei can’t help retreating into her shell whenever the topic comes up around her. Vishkar is currently her only option for leaving and the closeness between the two women surely doesn’t revolve around her, yet she can’t help thinking her window of opportunity to take the offer is closing at the same pace they are growing closer.

The only one that helps her to deal with the uncertainty is Zarya. The awkwardness between them has dived back under the surface for now. While she has to refuse Mei’s questions frequently she still spends almost all of her free time near Mei. Their pool lessons continue and are joined by tea breaks, where Mei learns Zarya puts jam into her tea, one of the few diet cheats she allows herself. For a few precious hours she can stop worrying about what General Volskaya plans to do with her and Snowball while admiring Zarya’s strength, blushing and ogling her abs on occasion. She’s over thirty and her stomach still does flips whenever Zarya smiles or pushes her hand through her hair. Especially the hair, the adorable flop of the pink locks makes her swoon every damn time.

Her hopeless crush is a nice, manageable problem. She already knows the rules of unrequited romantic yearning and can live with only looking. At this point, worrying about Zarya looking back at her and making innuendos is a familiar routine.

“You should come down to the workshop.” Petrov suggests during dinner. Mei needs a minute to realize he’s talking to her because the only eye contact he makes in the cafeteria is with his food.

“The workshop?” No one mentioned a place like this to her yet. She is intrigued despite having no aptitude for engineering or tinkering. Must come with having two left hands.

Petrov shrugs. “Where we work on regular stuff. R&D is nice but when you’re running around doing missions at minus thirty and your pulse ammunition is a popsicle you need a good old fashioned Kalashnikov. No one ever leaves out their experimental tech to freeze at night anymore. Damn lazy.” He scoffs.

It’s easy to forget that Russia is at war when Mei isn’t allowed anywhere outside very specific areas even inside the fence. She certainly does not like thinking about it. The violence, the constant precarious conditions where any of them could be attacked at any moment, the way Zarya and everyone around Mei is permanently standing with one foot in the grave. No, Mei shuts all these thoughts away. And yet reality comes knocking on sooner or later anyway, like now, with a single sentence. It grabs her by the collar, rips her out from under her peaceful rock and flings her into casual conversations about dying omnics and failing soldiers.

Right, Petrov. Keep the conversation flowing without awkwardness. Easy-peasy. “Are solid projectiles a good idea? I mean, do they do enough… damage?”

“Obviously, EMP and gravity bombs are more efficient.” Zarya cuts in from the side. Half of her words are blocked out by the porridge topped with something she called _tvorog_ in her mouth. It is also _really_ adorable.

Petrov waves her off. Clearly this is an argument they have had several times. “Yes, yes, gravity bombs are great. But even normal bullets can server wires and crack chips.” He gestures with his open faced sandwich. “Anyway, Mei, you should come. You can bring your drone thing and get help with whatever repairs you may need.”

Zarya’s smile starts looking strained. She gives Mei a look clearly meant to remind her about Snowball’s solitary confinement in Mei’s room.

“…Sure, I will come.” Mei agrees, mostly to see Zarya’s face crumble a bit more. Mei has to stifle a laugh at the wrinkles rippling across her face.

Petrov leads her to the workshop after breakfast. She leaves Snowball in her room. Outside of teasing, she’s not ready to push her boundaries yet. The workshop is exactly as messy as she expected and completely different at the same time. There’s grease, grime and oil as people in overalls that look like they came from the 20th century check jeeps and hover jeeps alike, fixing them. Mechanics on hover boards are crammed under at least two vehicles. Then, there’s another corner filled with guns. A few soldiers are taking them apart, cleaning and repairing them before they put them back together.

Other things destroy the ambience. All bits and pieces are sorted in clear plastic containers that are colourfully labeled. It is surprisingly clean. And over in the corner, a person is spinning light.

Mei grabs her glasses and cleans the lenses. The person pulling threads from the light skein is Ms. Vaswani. Of course.

“What is she doing here?” Mei hisses at Petrov and doesn’t even try to hide her distaste.

“Well, she’s an engineer. A fancy ass engineer with equipment worth more than the rest of the room but an engineer.”

“What about R&D?”

“We convinced Satya to join us. And for her, unless the order comes from Vishkar, she makes her own decisions.”

Ms. Vaswani looks up, her eyes roaming over Petrov and stopping when she recognizes Mei. Mei shivers under when the attention of those discerning eyes us focused solely at her. It’s like staring into the sun. Compared to Zarya, being confronted by the architect is way more terrifying. Mei is not sure what kind of punishment Zarya would give the, but at most she probably makes the soldiers exercise until they pass out. Vaswani looks like she would be much more ambitious to correct behaviour.

“You should chat a bit with her. If you need any non-standard components, she can build them. It’s really something. ”

“Ah, maybe later. I don’t have any complicated plans and don’t want to bother her unnecessarily.” Mei turns away and makes her way over to the other side of the room. Petrov comes with her a beat later.

Mei starts by looking over the material available. There’s a bunch of screws and tubes, soldering irons and sheets of metal, plastic rings for isolation and so much more. She can make do with this. “She is nice, you know? Vaswani. Scuttlebutt around here has it you met her earlier. Did something happen there?” Petrov is looking at some rusted screw like it means the world.

“…Not really.” Mei is already sinking into the rhythm of work. She takes whatever materials she deems useful and makes a neat pile on the side.

“Ok then. I’ll be over there.” Petrov says and leaves her alone.

She has a basic skeleton for her project done when Vaswani comes over. She leans over Mei to look down at her work and studies it for a few moments. Her judgement shouldn’t matter to Mei but she still tenses in anticipation. “I didn’t know you were interested in guns.”

“It’s a blaster.” Mei corrects her. She actually likes guns, but mostly just in holos. When she had first heard a firearm being shot in real life, the bang had her jumping out of her skin. No wonder people compared it to the sound of thunder. Modern pulse weapons and magnetic bombs were way less noisy. Mei definitely prefers seeing those real guns only whenever she watches a new western.

The blaster she tries to emulate was originally not designed with the intention to hurt. Instead it’s a mini version of the blizzard function wielded by weather modification drones. It normally shoots a single beam for precision patching of glaciers and ice shields. But there were also some accounts of arctic researchers that had successfully wielded it as a weapon as well as they defended themselves from polar bears.

Most parts for her blaster design are just straight up napped from guns. No need to reinvent a trigger, for example. The real problem is making a tank for the coolant. Glass or any other seamless building material would be ideal for her purpose. The scraps here aren’t anywhere close and it’s not like she can just blow her own glass chamber. Right?

“If you allow me, Dr. Zhou.” The voice behind her is heavy with self-assurance. Mei whirls around to face Vaswani. Her gut instinct tells her to reject the help immediately. But Vaswani would surely be offended.

That moment of hesitation is what allows the architect to make the decision for her. Instead of waiting for an answer she starts spinning light between her finger tips. Mei can’t help watching the strands of ephemeral spider silk like strands she spins and twists in air; a cat’s cradle made out of light. Then, with a flick of her wrist, Vaswani tightens up the whole weave and a transparent cylinder is formed.

“I believe this should fit.” She says and clicks it into place. “Are you not going to add the front?” Vaswani asks sounding like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.

“I’m- yes, I’m going to, but this wasn’t necessary.” Mei is torn between embarrassment and anger at how presumptuous of Vaswani it is to just do make this for Mei without asking. Maybe Mei never was a perfect engineer but she can still build a _basic_ blaster without help. Mei fumes silently, trying to regain her composure. Or safe whatever is left.

“You looked like you needed help.” Vaswani is not bothered by her failure to reply. “Would you like-“

“No!” Mei hisses back. She’s grinding her teeth loud enough that Vaswani has to be able to hear it. “It’s fine, you didn’t need to go through the trouble on my account.”

“Are you sure you wouldn’t like to? It’s no bother.” Vaswani just ignores the frustration radiating from Mei sand has the gall to be still perfectly composed and cordial.

“I’m positive.” Mei says in her best imitation of an Antarctic blizzard.

Vaswani’s brows furrow with unhappiness. “It would be much more efficient if you took my help.”

“Architect.” Petrov jumps in, just at the right time. Otherwise Mei might have done something she would regret. “Mei probably knows best what she has in mind. If she wants help later, she knows where to find you.”

“Alright.” Vaswani finally relents, even if she has to visibly calm herself down. She twirls her wrist a few times before adding: “I’ll leave you to your work then. Dr. Zhou.” She nods her head once at Mei and strides out of the room. On anyone else this would have been an angry stomp followed by a slammed door, but she glides.

Petrov clears his throat. “I really don’t think she means bad.” He returns to his own project, leaving Mei by herself.

She stares at the hard light cylinder in the blaster, studying the material for flaws. Not finding any, she leaves it in place and finishes the prototype around it.                                                                                           

+++

Next is getting the prototype out of the work shop. It’s not going to be an easy feat. Snowball is still confined to their room, so the blaster has to go to them for evaluation, no way around it. Until then, she stores it in Petrov’s storage space.

“I’ll keep working on it later.” She tells him. Better not let on that the blaster is already mostly operational, if untested.

Petrov smiles at her and waves her concern away. “Not a problem, Dr. Zhou.”

An hour later someone raps a beat on her quarter door. Mei puts her finger to her lips and Snowball signals agreement with a flicker of their light array. She nods and opens the door.

It’s Zarya in her casual clothes, a black tank top over a sports bra and some comfortable fleece pants. She doesn’t wear any socks. On her hip rests a waist pouch decorated with pyramid studs. “Hello, Mei. Can I come in?”

“I, ah. Sure, make yourself at home.” Mei clears the way and goes over to sit on her bed. Snowball is hovering around in circles out of the way in a corner.

“Is it supposed to do that?” Zarya wrinkles her brow at the maneuvers.

“Ah, yes? It’s just… an autonomous search pattern.” Mei stops rambling and hopes Zarya buys her explanation, as flimsy as it is.

Zarya nods and grabs the single chair, moving it opposite of Mei. “I… wanted to apologize? Not completely, I still think you should have left the drone behind and. I’m not doing myself any favours, aren’t I?” She takes a deep breath. “I was rude and it was not appropriate. We may have different approaches but that doesn’t mean I should have reacted like that.”

 Mei pulls up her legs onto the bed and crosses them. She grips the toes in her hands, curling and stretching them in turn. “I’m not sure what I should say. Thank you for apologizing but… You had a point and yet I would do the same thing again. I’m not sure if an apology is going to change anything in our minds.”

Zarya snorts slightly. “We will make a change, I’m certain. Let’s put this whole topic to rest for a while. Say, Mei…” She reaches into her pouch to pull out a nail care kit. “How do you feel about nail polish?”

Mei moves her hands between her thighs without thought, effectively hiding her nails. “I’m really not very good at it.” Which was putting it mildly. The most her teenage experiments had yielded were sloppy painted nails, often painting over the cuticle as well. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t _fun_ though.

“Will you let me do them for you?” Zarya asks; her eyes open with anticipation. Mei can’t bring herself to disappoint that look.

She holds out her right hand and lets Zarya go to town. She starts with general clipping and filing down any remaining edges. Mei just leans back and keeps silent. Soon she is rewarded with Zarya humming.

Next Zarya picks up an unfamiliar plastic tool and pushes back the cuticles. She is practiced, one, two pushes and on to the next nail it is. “Is there any design in particular you would like?”

“Not really. Did you have anything in mind?” Zarya’s hands are so much bigger they completely engulf hers and yet she is handling them with surprising deftness. A flick of the wrist, a small turn and suddenly Mei’s fingers are in a new position. The touch warms up her fingertips – very convenient, since Mei usually has horrible circulation – and the groves on Zarya’s hands create a wonderful friction with every shift.  

“Your hands have nice shapes.” Zarya rubs her thumb over Mei’s knuckles in a slow circle.

“I don’t know…” Her skin is cracked from being in constant cold for the last few years.  She has scabs at the corner of her nails and scars.

Zarya starts giving her a transparent coat first. “Well, I know so.”

It helps, spending time with Zarya off duty. She’s not so different, there’s no 180 degree switch between personalities or anything. Zarya simply doesn’t have to fill a commander’s role now and instead fits into her skin even better. As Zarya is holding Mei’s hand in hers, conversation flows easy. The tension from their arguments before is thrown out of the window and locked out.

“So, maybe I will return to the Olympics when this is done. But that’s my career so far.” With a flourish Zarya finishes colouring the base on Mei’s left hand. “Ok, give me the other.”

Mei looks at her hand critically. It looks literally flawless, the pastel lilac shining like spring flowers. “Is there any way to make this dry faster?” She asks, shaking her hand like she’s drying a polaroid picture.

“There’s ice water, but I wasn’t really in the mood. Don’t touch anything and there will be no problem.”

“Ah, so you get lazy from time to time. Good to know you’re mortal after all.” Mei laughs at her own lame joke and Zarya, after looking cross for a few moments, joins in.

“Guess the others told you how hard I am on recruits during training, huh?”

“It may have come up here or there. Especially from Kuzy.” Zarya shrugs, taking the teasing in stride. She keeps painting Mei’s nails as they fall back into mutual silence.

“About the intruder… have you figured out something yet? Why they were here? Did they damage anything or steal?”

“Well, you’re not exactly cleared to know about it.” Zarya switches out colours and hands. “But everyone else does and it’s impossible to shut Kuzy and the others up forever. Please just keep this to yourself around our guest from Vishkar. This is actually not the first time they attacked us. A few months ago, a group of three highly specialized mercenaries targeted us. A sniper, a presumed former black ops heavy hitter and our intruder, a stealth infiltrator. General Volskaya was visiting at the time, so it would make sense if she was the original target.”

“You were prepared for them now, though. After all, the other two didn’t make it through this time.” Mei can see how much this is affecting Zarya. There are whole lines on her face that clearly are the fault of the intruders.

“Not really. The infiltrator came alone this time, which might be the only reason we were able to deflect them. I hadn’t joined this location last time but I saw the videos. One of them, the former black ops, took out a whole mech and walked away from it. No one in R&D has an explanation.” Zarya drags a hand through her hair and buries her face in her hands. “We’re staking the security of this whole front and everyone in it on these mechs and it takes them maybe five minutes to put one out of commission. The moment omnics figure out how to replicate those results we’re fucked.”

It’s… awful to see her like this. Defeated, without hope in the face of a future that hasn’t happened yet. Mei has no idea how to deal with it. She always sucked at comforting people. “You are fighting pretty hard, huh.” It feels absolutely inane to say, but at this point she has nothing else to give and at least this is more than zero.

Zarya’s nail polish is cradled forgotten in her hand. She gives a defeated shrug. “Hate to say it, but we will not win against machines by simply fighting harder. We have to be smarter or it is all useless. But… if anyone can help, it’s the General.” Mei could swear that was not what Zarya had planned to say at first. _Set it aside, sift through it later_ , she reminded herself.

Instead, she takes the time waiting for Zarya to continue and tries to fit the puzzle pieces together. “Did you find out why they were targeting you? Who is paying them?” She thinks back to a few days ago when she first went outside the compound walls: a tundra filled with moss and grasses where the snow and ice between glinted. Some sparse shrubbery in the distance. “I don’t know exactly where we are but it can’t be anywhere near any major population cluster. How did they even get here?”

Zarya folds her arms with a frown. “Honestly, it’s highly classified. General Volskaya is actively looking into how they got so much information. You will be informed when everyone else is.”

That doesn’t clear up anything, which was probably what the General was aiming for. “Either way those three are going to return soon, you know, either solo or as a team. You’re doing a good job of keeping them in check so far. I don’t think you will be caught flatfooted again.”

“Maybe so, but who’s to say they don’t have others ready to fill out their ranks here. Pushing them back is just a band aid. We should capture them.”

Mei has to hold still for Zarya as she starts to paint again with some detail work. She is bowed over Mei’s hands, gripping it to steady it, and Mei can’t tear her eyes away from her barred neck. The soft pink strands fall over muscles. It’s mesmerizing.

“Vishkar wants me to come work for them.” Mei blurts out, trying to distract herself before she starts resembling a tomato.

Zarya freezes, halting all movement at once. Mei can see her back muscles playing and then her hands moves again. “They’re sponsoring research a lot. That sounds like a good fit for you. After all, if we neutralize all the hostile machines and end up with a planet on which we cannot live, humanity will still have lost.”

“It sounds good, I guess. I’m not sure about them yet…”

Zarya’s eyes widen slightly, as if she’s surprised that Mei might want to stay longer instead of jumping ship at the first available opportunity. She starts to say something as the shrill sound of an emergency siren cuts her off.

“Yoptel-mopsel!” is all Mei can hear and then Zarya is out of the door, nail polish and everything else forgotten.

Mei doesn’t waste time waiting around. She instructs Snowball to hold the fort this time – if she goes against Zarya’s explicit wishes again, she is not going to get off so easy this time. Even if Zarya doesn’t mind, Mei isn’t sure she wants to test how forgiving Katya Volskaya is right now.

Instead, she heads to the workshop and collects the prototype endothermic blaster. It doesn’t look pretty; after all, it is just a first concept cobbled together out of spare parts. Might as well see how well it can hold up under real stress.

Blaster holstered, parka with fur hood closed, extra coolant secured. She is about ready as she can be. The intruder will hopefully be too preoccupied with the Defense Forces to see her coming. She can do this.

Ten minutes later Mei is huddled behind a wall and shaking with every shot. The enemy is not the intruder this time. Instead, the military outpost is under omnic attack. The Russian soldiers are holding the lines so far, she thinks. Not like she has looked since she saw what was going on and cowered into this hole.

There’re a lot of roles omnics can fulfill now instead of humans. Not menial tasks like mining or harvesting – those were done by _machines_. Repetitive tasks most humans could not stomach to do every day for years, tasks that might make them shake with anger or exhaustion, do not, in fact, require much of a sophisticated AI, adaptation or advanced learning algorithms. Those were not tasks that needed to be done by either humans or omnics.

No, the robots Omnica Cooperation had sold and marketed were meant to be more versatile. Shop keepers, caretakers or executive assistances that would keep up with changes for decades and had long lasting power sources. All built in a self-optimising factory controlled by a single, incredible powerful AI.

It is easy for humans to be maimed or killed by a machine. So easy, it doesn’t even require intent. A human could easily have his neck cut by a fan belt or crush an appendage between moving gears. First generation omnics, even with intent, were not nearly as deathly (if one excluded, of course, harming their fusion core). If they had hands, they could strangle or take up weapons, and if they were fitted with specialized tools like a digging arm, they could use them. But at first, the biggest difference was that humans were simply squishier.

They had started simple but the omnics produced by the Siberian omnium now were vastly different. Bastions and OR-14 made up the bulk of the attackers. They were armed with projectiles, a human weapon to fight humans. Small, mobile units that resemble dogs on two legs flit around them. They use their superior speed to sneak in laser damage whenever they can. And all of them are shielded behind the half dome shields from the OR-14s.

Opara, during a late night conversation inside the Ecopoint as the typical blizzard raged outside, had called these weapons ‘crude’. Mei had nodded and kept stirring their vegetable fry. _How the hell had she been convinced that they were in any way simple?!_ Mei is shaking, her arms around her knees in a fetal position. She is trapped behind a reinforced wall by a single bastion. She thinks, maybe, it is in turret mode, but she only got a split second look at it before she dove for shelter. The Russian Defense Soldiers in front of her did not get so lucky. She had to listen to their wounded screams and moans while she sat here and couldn’t do anything.

After it killed the soldiers, the bastion started chipping away at her shelter. It didn’t even attempt to move; apparently already in the ideal position it isn’t prepared to give up. Now it’s just amusing itself with Mei until new reinforcements arrive. Every impact made shakes the whole wall to its fundament. It doesn’t seem like the bastion will ever run out of ammo.

 _I wish Zarya was here._ Who knows where she is. But… she can’t just wait to be rescued. She’s here to help, not lure more soldiers into an ambush. She has her endothermic blaster and she can’t stick around here. _Deep breath, Mei._

She peeks out from the shelter and fires wildly. It doesn’t hit the bastion, just the ground in front of it, just like she planned. Instead a wall of solid ice rises up, made to hot glue (or cold, in this case) a failing ice sheet together, and effectively cuts her off from the bastion’s sight. The bullets don’t stop and the ice wall rings with crackling against the onslaught. Still, it is holding.

Mei takes the chance and runs back into the hallway. She seals off the entrance with another layer of ice for good measure. Hopefully that will give them some breathing room.

She moves more carefully from then on, stopping to listen frequently and checking around corners. “Dr. Zhou!” The call still makes her jump and almost freeze Kuzy who somehow managed to come up behind her. “Are you supposed to be here? Or too nervous to stay in one place?” He’s rambling, eyes flickering back and forth. The nervous flicker makes him seem his age: not a hardened soldier but a teenager trying to muddle through. “Well, never mind that now. Come, I’ll escort you to the Lieutenant.”

Mei falls in line behind him on instinct. Kuzy moves steady onward but cautious nonetheless. They manage to catch up to what seems to be the main force without any incidents. The soldiers are busy defending a doorway to an inner courtyard. Most of the large entryway is blocked off with a conveniently parked truck that gives shelter to the soldiers returning fire. Someone yells for Kuzy, following it up with some phrases in angry Russian that have him picking up his pace. A backwards wave is all the goodbye he has time for.

Mei is left to her own devices. With no one else taking over for Kuzy she listens for Zarya’s voice. She is out front, guarding the choke point and drawing fire. Mei hefts her blaster and makes her way in Zarya’s direction. Around her, the soldiers stand so close together Mei can’t enter the throng in front of her. Over their heads, Zarya’s pink hair plays in the wind like a banner.

Mei cups her hands to her face and standing on her tiptoes shouts “Zarya!” as loud as she can.

“M- Dr. Zhou!” Zarya is not looking back, instead focusing on absorbing damage with a hard light shield bubble. On the other side of the choke point, the Vishkar architect is helping out as well, sending out barriers straight towards the attacking omnics. “What are you doing here?” She yells back over the noise of battle.

“I wanted to help.” Mei is focused on Zarya as she wields her particle cannon with a surprising amount of grace. It looks like it weighs a ton and Mei could believe it if Zarya hadn’t told her personally about her max weight was only half of that.

“The thought is appreciated-“ Zarya grunts and sends a bot flying with a mighty heave of the cannon. “But I don’t see how. Or are these things vulnerable to rain now?” She keeps firing at the enemy with a singular focus that signals the conversation is over.

Mei flinches back and hugs herself. She may need a moment to sort this out. It’s not personal critique, of course not, she reminds herself. The lieutenant doesn’t know anything about Mei and what she can do. Mei does not have the combat experience and she got excused from mandatory basic because of her bad constitution and asthma. Overwatch wasn’t so kind and they made sure even their civilians were not ‘idle’, so Mei got an experimental inhaler and a light exercise routine. She’s not fast or strong but she has built up her stamina from carrying around equipment on mile long treks through Antarctica.

Similarly, Overwatch had required all personal to take and pass basic shooting and gun safety courses. It’s not the same as learning a weapon in the military and shooting under pressure or for your life. But she can aim and handle recoil on firearms. Of course, there is something else working in her favour: the blaster design was never meant for precision shooting and instead shoots a beam wide enough to mend even big rifts in glaciers. So recoil is very little and aim is generous. Mei is sure she will prove Zarya that she’s not without defense.  

She kneels behind one truck wheel to take position and fires the endothermic blaster at the eradicators converging on Zarya and the soldiers around her. She switches between the beam to freeze projectile weapons and laser and throwing icicles that do enough damage against the smaller, bipedal units. Freezing the lines of hydraulic fluids leaves the attacking omnics easy pickings for the other shooters under the shelter of Zarya’s shield.

For a while she gets into the rhythm of shot, shot, shot and reload. Wires and silicon lubricant litter the ground but the omnic forces keep coming as new ones are dropped on them from above. Even as the Russian troops exterminate wave after wave, they can’t hold up much longer under the strain. Then two fresh OR-14s get dropped on the ground and shore up an abundance of eradicators. _This is it, for sure, they’re going to get overwhelmed_.

But to Mei’s left, Zarya lets out a grunt and fires the black hole from her cannon. It makes a wide arc through the air, coming down quite a ways from the barricade. In a flash, anything even in the area gets sucked towards it: omnics, scrap metal, rocks. Mei reacts on instinct and fires icicles blindly into the amassing bots, concentrating her fire with the rest there.

After that, the waves from the omnium seem to become sparser. Mei makes sure to block off one of the entrances to the yard with a well-placed wall of solid ice and then takes a deep breath. _Humans can’t keep up with this pace much longer, but maybe they won’t have to._

Their backup arrives not much later. Three of the big mechs lumber out of underground ramps and take positions on the perimeter. Within a few moments, they have taken control of the situation. Mei wipes her brow dry and holsters the blaster. The other soldiers are getting new orders as well. Some, like Kuzy who waves at her when he passes, go forward and help the mechs. The rest seem to relax too and slowly pack up their gear.

Others, however – Zarya’s big hand comes down on Mei’s shoulder. The grip is on the edge between strict and painful. Zarya smiles woodenly while her steely eyes pin Mei more effectively than her hand ever could.

She’s still as gorgeous as the first time Mei saw her.

“General Volskaya needs to see you.” Zarya inclines her head to the left. Two soldiers in polished uniforms are standing guard behind her. They step forward in unison to flank Mei.

“We will escort you, Dr. Zhou.” The right one says. She’s sporting a massive red mane tucked into two neat braids. Her cheeks are fuzzed with majestic side burns. Mei doesn’t trust her voice enough to do more than nod at the guards and follow them without a complaint.

They lead her back into the building core, where she was initially interrogated. This time, however, they move the interrogation tract and towards the General’s office. It still reflects her origin as a CEO of a weapon manufacturer before the company was collectivised under the Russian government.

General Volskaya cuts a powerful figure up close. Certainly enough to be frightening, if you’re on her bad side. Mei isn’t quite sure if she has reached that point yet.

“Dr. Zhou.” General Volskaya nods to the seat in front of her. “I hear we can thank you for helping to defend the base. My thanks.”

 Mei hesitates to answer. To be honest, she was expecting to be lectured about being an ungrateful rescue and betraying them in favour of an omnic. “I’m happy to help.” She settles on finally as she lowers herself into the chair. It is unspeakably comfortable.

“When we first caught the emergency transmission, we were surprised. Your exploration team had been lost for several years. To be honest, it seemed like a trap. We have to be careful in these uncertain times. Understandable, right?” From anyone else the sentiment could have sounded genial, even friendly. Katya Volskaya managed to be neither.

Mei’s heart is hammering in her throat. Who knows what this woman wants from her? She meets the cool gaze of General, as icy as an Antarctic blizzard, and hopes her bluff will work. “Understandable, of course.”

“So, while it took some time, our experts determined you, Dr. Zhou, are indeed the real deal. Climate scientist, stationed at Ecopoint Antarctica, missing in action for more than nine years.” General Volskaya grabs a holopad from the side and taps a few times. Mei can’t read what she’s looking at but that’s her Overwatch ID photo right on top of the page. That should have been classified. She holds back a shiver.

 General Volskaya watches Mei, waiting for her to break the silence. What is she expected to say now? If here was a question, she missed it. She is on display and nowhere to hide for her. And despite everything, she is a guest of sorts. Being rude could become a fatal mistake for Snowball. The General speaks again: “I think it is time to have a talk about your plans from here on. Let me fill you in a bit.”

She throws up a map in a holo left of Mei. “We’re on the front of the Krasnoyarsk Omnium. This is not the exact position of the base but approximates it for you to visualize.  Lieutenant Zarya should have impressed you with this already, but all of the information surrounding this base is confidential. I’m sure you were used to the same precautions in Overwatch.”

Mei bites her tongue on protests and nods again. She has learned how to deal with resentment the hard way.

“You will have to clear with us who you’re contacting first, but for now we will allow you to message a person. Voice or text only. But I’m sure you are eager to contact your family.”

Mei is, she really is. She hasn’t seen her mom in a while and surely she has a barrage of new snow puns to share. Her dad is the complete opposite, shy and quiet for most of the time until his sarcasm gets a chance to shine. But… they’re ordinary people working ordinary jobs, a doctor and a librarian. They thought she was dead for years. They don’t know anything about managing relations with multi-corporate enterprises or how to handle international relations. How would they understand if she called them but told them she couldn’t come to visit them? Contacting them now could only serve to make them leverage for the Russian Defense Forces against her.

She yearns for a moment longer and puts the feeling to the side. Before the storm, Overwatch had handled any problems with other organisations for them. Not that they had the chance to interact with anything outside of penguins at the Ecopoint. Now, calling any number connected to the Zurich Watchpoint she remembered would probably be a waste of phone call.

So, that left her embassy. Was Russia on good enough terms with China to have one? She hadn’t really earned good standing with the official ecology ministry when instead of staying and working for local institutes she agreed to join Overwatch. Never bad enough that she couldn’t return or had to fear for her relatives being blackballed.

General Volskaya tapped her fingers impatiently on the table. The clicks sounded like claws skittering. “Now, I hope you will continue to corporate as well as you have with us. If there’s nothing else, I’ll leave the rest up to Lieutenant Zaryanova. ”

“Wait!” The glare she receives has her balking, so Mei picks the first question that pops into her mind. “I need to know: What exactly happened to Overwatch? Some of the soldiers talked about an explosion, but the accounts all differed.”

General Volskaya huffs with irritation but nods. “You will get the dossier. Now, if you will excuse me.” She stands just as Zarya opens the door to the office, ushering Mei out into the hallway.

+++

They make their way back to Mei’s room and Zarya closes the door behind them. She has been silent the whole time.

Zarya runs a hair through her hair before sitting down next to Mei on the bed. She looks tired. “Look, I know the adjustment hasn’t been easy for you. But I really need to know at least some of this stuff, if you will not stay out of combat. Like, where did you even get that ice gun?”

“I… built it? Down in the workshop.”

“The tech gurus are mostly just down there tinkering or repairing whatever little material we’ve got. It’s all refuse and broken parts down there. I don’t get how the fuck you managed to build such a weapon down there. And _why_ you were building it in the first place.” Zarya finishes her outburst and huffs.

“I… I needed…” Mei trails off. The truth is, she doesn’t think that the General has her best interests at heart and by extension she cannot trust anyone under her command. She made the blaster to be able to defend Snowball and herself. “I just needed to, I guess. I was frustrated by the Vishkar architect…”

Zarya looks exhausted, no, defeated. It breaks Mei’s heart. “Stop it. I know you are not comfortable around Satya, that’s fine. But you have been evasive whenever we asked you about anything. I don’t understand where that comes from. I don’t get what you think you need to hide-”  

“I’m not hiding anything.” Mei manages to press out. She tucks her hand und her arms and tries to ignore the increasingly strong trembles going through them. Her vision centers on Zarya. The angry set of her brows. The unhappy slant of her mouth. She wants to run, hide, get away from the look of betrayal but there’s nowhere to go. She is cornered in her room, alone on this military base.

Zarya deflates further, her shoulders dropping. She knuckles on of her eyes tiredly. “Then why can’t you answer any of my questions? Do you think I would not help you however I could? I thought we had become friends over the last few weeks, Mei. And yet I don’t even know enough about your worries to comfort you.”

The betrayal in Zarya’s voice is palpable. This is all Mei’s fault. Sweat breaks out all over her body at the thought. She’s so awful, so gross to Zarya. And instead of saying something she is just standing here with her hands tucked into her sweaty arm pits while Zarya looks a hair’s breadth away from crying. A hot flash runs through her body, heating up her face and neck. She’s shaking like a leaf in the wind now, completely useless.

Zarya halts her merciless interrogation. “Hey, Mei, are you ok?” Gingerly her hand stretches towards Mei’s left shoulder. Mei can only watch with wide eyes as the hand comes closer and closer.

With an avenging melody of bleep-bloops Snowball comes between Zarya and Mei, blocking her from making any physical contact. They fly neat figure eights to drive Zarya away. For her part, the weight lifter seems shocked enough to let the little drone boss her around. Normally, Mei would have laughed seeing it, but right now it just seems dull and unimportant.  What was she even doing. She just can’t seem to stop shaking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been a slow update, for which I apologize. It will not be the only one. For now, this fic will be on the backburner because I impulsively signed up for a Big Bang! Since that project has a deadline, it will be given priority. Until then, I plan to bridge the gap between them a bit with more Overwatch podfics. I got several targets to record with permissions, so keep an eye out for them!


	4. Introductions

Mei comes to lying in her bed. The sun is almost setting and has wandered far enough that its last light of the day falls straight onto her and wakes her. Opening her eyes is hard. She must be absolutely exhausted. She probably stayed up all night in the lab again checking the data. Opara is going to lecture her again.

“Mei?” That’s not Opara’s voice.  She struggles to turn her head to the side. A strong hand pulls her into a sitting position so she is eye to eye with Zarya. She looks… concerned. From behind her comes a familiar beep and Snowball floats over. They begin snowing delicately on her forehead. The cool feels wonderful on her skin. Mei didn’t even realize she was burning up. She gives Snowball a small nod.

“Yeah?” Her throat feels parched like the Antarctic desert.

Zarya hands her a cup of tea. Mei blows it once, twice to cool before attempting a sip. It’s sweetened with honey. “I think you had a panic attack.” Zarya says.

Oh. That makes a lot of sense, especially how it feels like she got caught in a blizzard and – she blushes - fainting. Mei tries her best to manage a smile but can only manage some lip twitches. Still, it should be enough to reassure Zarya that she is alright.

“Drink some more, you need to get your strength back.” Zarya once again assists her and lifts her upper body one handed up to the glass. “If you get into serious training for any sport, you start to appreciate how important hydration is. I have some crackers as well, if you feel up for it.”

Mei does feel up to it. The single salt cracker crumbles on her tongue. It’s not the best thing she has ever eaten – that still goes to the cup noodles she ate after coming out of cryo stasis. The cracker is pretty good though. Zarya generously lets her have a second one when she doesn’t throw it up immediately. Mei takes small nibbles. Opening her mouth seems like a chore, but she wouldn’t stop eating this cracker even if the General personally came down and forbid it. It’s delicious.

Zarya cuts through her deliriousness like butter. “Mei. I think I owe you an apology. I pressured you for answers before and didn’t notice how much my questioning agitated you. I should have noticed something was wrong earlier and not pushed as hard.” Zarya is unable to look at her, giving the whole speech while staring at her intertwined fingers twitch in her lap.

 _No, it’s not your fault, you’re not to blame, don’t apologize._ Her insecurities crowd into her head but Mei pushes them aside with routine. “Thank you. I appreciate it.” She follows it up with a tentative pat on Zarya’s knee. Zarya’s lips wobble before they bloom into a smile that lights up the room.

“Try to drink a bit more.” Mei takes a few more sips of warm tea. Zarya’s hand rests on her neck comfortingly and the heat sinks into Mei’s shoulder.  She drains the glass and lies back down. She’s not exactly ready to get up again yet. Snowball moves from their post on her head to her side. They beep quietly _status ?_.

“I’m recovering well.” Mei answers.

“Would you ever say anything else?” Zarya huffs while she eyes the drone critically. Snowball just keeps hovering in place next to Mei. They are completely conspicuous, not even attempting to hide. Their ocular displays narrows in an approximation of a glare. Zarya snorts and turns back to Mei. “I have even more questions now. But you need to recover first.”

Mei isn’t strong enough to say no to her. She arches her head to take another sip of tea when Zarya returns with another cup. Then, she slowly sinks back into sleep.

+++

Hoarse whispers wake Mei up a second time. “For the last time, _move_.” Disharmonic beeps answer. “I’ll scrap you with my bare hands and melt down your innards in a furnace. You would be more useful as plating for our next mech.” The rhythm of the beeps picks up until it becomes frantic. Mei can feel her headache returning.

As soon as she starts sitting up, the arguing stops. Zarya hovers next to her with her arms outstretched to catch her, just in case. Snowball circles Mei and deploys their full range of bio scanners. Mei has to raise her hand so she doesn’t get accidentally blinded by a laser. Zarya growls at the drone and Snowball flits behind Mei. It would be cute if not for noise level.

“Stop.” Mei says in her best teaching voice and, surprisingly, they both listen to her. Huh. She steps into her warm yeti slippers, goes over to the kettle and fixes two cups of tea. Tea fixes everything. Zarya watches her silently for a moment and then she comes over to mix jam into her mug.

“So. You want to tell me what is going on with your ‘drone’?”

“Ahh.” Mei reaches up to the hair ornaments that somehow managed to stay in her hair while she slept and twists them thoughtfully. If they sometimes catch and pull on the messy strands, well, the pain just keeps her more grounded.

Zarya looks patiently at her for a while, until it’s clear she has nothing to say for herself. “This thing is an omnic, Mei, and you knew that. Did you lie to us or were you just not being” - Zarya inserts some air quotes – “entirely truthful? Did you think we wouldn’t notice? Why would you even bring it with you in the first place? You could have let it rust in Antarctica!” Snowball lets out an enraged noise and Zarya just glares back with hatred. Her shoulders are hunched up at the sound, Mei notices.

“You both really need to stop this, please.” Twist ornament, readjust grip, twist again. She can’t even meet Zarya’s eyes, much less answer her pleads. “I wasn’t really thinking… I didn’t lie to you. Snowball is a weather modification drone. They are also very autonomous and able to instigate new tasks in the field.”

“You are splitting hairs. It’s clearly operating independently enough to qualify as an omnic by the standards of the defense forces.” Meanwhile, Snowball is beeping up another lecture in binary whistles. “Those bipedal canine units certainly never rattled back, so it’s definitely over that threshold.”

Mei can’t help her frown this time. “Snowball prefers ‘they’, Zarya. They are my partner and they deserve just as much respect as me.”

Zarya arrogantly tilts her head in mockery of consideration. “Does it? Does it really deserve that?”

Spin, re-grip, spin. “They do. You either respect us both or none.”

Zarya stares at her with widened eyes. “You… really believe this thing even cares?! What benefit does an omnic get if I pretend it has feelings? The only thing you accomplish is giving it more sway over your decisions, Mei. It’s conditioning you.” The outburst leaves Zarya red in the face, physically straining with disbelief.

Mei goes completely still, her hand frozen in her hair. “To answer, yes, I do think _they_ care. Lieutenant, leave now. I will not abandon them.” _I will leave first._ “I stand by my friends and unless you can accept that, I can’t be your friend.” Zarya’s eyes flick between Mei and Snowball and for a moment, Mei can almost see her sitting back down and actually talking to her and Snowball. Then Zarya shoots up and storms out of the door, leaving Mei’s hope behind in shards.

+++

After playing 20 questions regarding the state of the world with Kuzy a few more times, Mei finally settles on who to call for help. Then, she starts the process of figuring out where she can actually do that.

The General’s personal assistant tells her twice that the General is currently in a meeting before losing his nerves and just outright denying her access _. His sneer is especially unattractive and would definitely improve from eating some icicles_ , Mei thinks and stomps back to the workshop to tinker with her blaster.

The constant testing is stabilizing the design more and more. Performance scores for accuracy rise through the roof and the range keeps improving as a result. She is only allowed to use the blaster under supervision. Usually it falls to Petrov to accompany her to the testing range. “You need to take every chance you get to relax when you’re my age.” He argues, as if he isn’t only ten years older than Mei. And that’s not counting her time frozen as lived.

Sometimes he joins her on the range with a small caliber fire arm. She has to use noise-canceling headphones then – they don’t block all the noise and the gel lining makes her sweat, but her hands stop shaking whenever Petrov fires. You take the good with the bad, she has learned.

She has to work her nerves up to it until she can approach the R&D lobby a second time. Stoic gum chewing clerk welcomes her with condescension. “You don’t have an appointment scheduled.” He says without looking up from whatever he’s reading behind the counter.

“I know.” Mei grouses. “I actually need to ask you something.”

“Oh?” Gum props his head on his palm. “You know, I may be a personal assistant, but I am not _your_ PA. What makes you think I have time to help you with your problems?” He adds nonchalantly.

 _You don’t look very busy_ , Mei thinks but doesn’t say. “I would say it’s more about showing me where to go. That should be easy, right? I’ll be out of your hair in no time.”

The compliments do fulfill their purpose. “Uh-huh.” Gum tries hard not to sound interested even as he straightens up. He’s clearly bad at hiding his emotions.

Mei presses on. “I got the ok from General Volskaya to make one phone call. Do you know where I should go to make that call?”

“Mh… I guess I can help you, Dr. Zhou.” Five minutes later Mei has a drawn map and an exhaustive list of directions to help her find the way. It turns out the phones are near the radio and radar hub on the roof. A row of satellite dishes shine in the early morning sun.  Low shacks line up in their shadows. Over all of them lies a thin layer of snow, blending the gold and black. It’s breath taking.

Mei tries the first door she sees and finds it open. Inside the shack it is more cramped than in her first office as a grad student. The whole room is stuffed with cubicles, each outfitted with a myriad of monitors and screens. Most of the technicians wear heavy ear phones as they stare obviously on their screens, looking through radar data she guesses.

“Are you Dr. Zhou?” In the far left corner is a clerk sitting on the single most depressing work desk Mei has ever seen. The clerk jumps over the desk without waiting for an answer. “Come on, I was wondering where you were. Most people on base use their phone calls right away, you know.” Her uniform is disheveled and she has rolled up her sleeves. Inexplicably, she has a long braid of hair that is dyed a brilliant turquoise. That has to be non-regulation. But then Zarya gets away with it too.

She pushes Mei forward gently and Mei is just too confused by her appearance to put up a fight at this point. The clerk parks her in front of the desk and clambers back to the other side.

“I’m Sergeant Lukyanova and responsible for the administration of phone privileges.” She gives a cheerful salute before she keeps on talking. “So, you need to fill out this form. Full name goes here, service number goes… well, I guess you can leave it blank, but definitely fill in the number and information on who you’re calling. You got a 15 minute window and only the number you give will be allowed through, so keep that in mind. And no re-rings, sorry!”

After a brief discussion on whether or not she should use _hanzi_ to spell her name (the verdict being yes, but only if she provides a transcription too) she finishes the whole form. It _is_ pretty straight forward. She has to wait a moment longer while the clerk unblocks the number she put down on the paper.

“Ok, we are good to go! Go ahead, I’ll tell you when your last minute starts.”

The wall phones in the corner of the shack still have physical buttons and the receiver is connected with an actual cord to it. Mei stares at them for a moment. She has never seen one of these in real life, only in the older westerns she watches. But using it should be straight forward, right? She carefully types in the country code and then the actual number. The phone rings. That means at least the country didn’t collapse during her time in cryo stasis, right?

“Hello?” A female voice answers. She sounds young and hesitant. Mei doesn’t recognize it and a shiver creeps down her spine. Fuck.

“Hi? This is Mei, Mei-Ling Zhou. Is Lena there?” The other end of the line stays silent.

“Mei was it, right? Do you… know Lena from work?”

“Yes. We weren’t colleagues because I was in a different department. I study climate science and sometimes Lena, ah, ‘popped in’ and wanted to know all sorts of stuff. She was worried about what changing weather would mean for pilots, I think? We used to talk at lunch when we were both at the same base.”

“I see! Mei, wasn’t it? Well, why are you calling now?” The woman on the other end of the line sounds so friendly now. If not for the beginning of their conversation, Mei would never have guessed she was so cautious. It was probably well earned, giving how Lena was quite a lightning rod for trouble back in the day.

“I… kinda wandered into a situation and could really use some help right now. I didn’t know who else to call…” Summed up like that, she certainly sounded pathetic. But it’s better to hurt some of her pride than staying stubbornly stuck because she couldn’t ask for help.

The other voice is silent for a moment. “Do you need somewhere to stay?”

“…I wasn’t even thinking that far ahead.” Mei confesses. “I am not allowed to leave my current location for security reasons.”

“Oh! So you need someone to advocate for your case, so you can eventually leave. Someone with a strong diplomatic reputation who is incredibly convincing instead of a lawyer?”

“Yes! Yes, that’s exactly what I need.”

“Well, you’re in luck because I happen to have one person like that lying around.” The small giggle is infectious and Mei smiles along with it. “Ok… So tell me everything you can.”

Mei actually manages to do so during her remaining minutes, simply because she knows so little about her situation. “I guess that‘s all of it for now.”

“Ok! I will let Lena know about it. When can I call you again?”

Mei twirls the cord around her finger as she thinks back. “I don’t think you can, actually. The base is on constant communication lockdown. I will have to call you back.”

“Ok. If you don’t make contact in two weeks, we will come to get you regardless.” Her voice sounds worried at the prospect that they will have to fulfill this promise. “Any other requests?”

“Tell Lena I said hi. And, uhm, what was your name again?” Mei grips the receiver with both hands. The voice on the other end stays silent, clearly already judging her.

“Oh bloody hell, I forgot to introduce myself, didn’t I? I’m Emily, a professional big oaf, Mei. I look forward to meeting you when this mess is finished.” Then, the phone line drops the call and leaves Mei alone with herself and one eager telephone technician.

“Everything went well?” Sergeant Lukyanova asks her. Mei nods numbly, unsure how to speak to someone so uninvolved in the strange realm of international bickering and transnational task forces. She waves goodbye absentmindedly because her brain is busy sorting through the information Emily gave her and climbs back down.

+++

The next day, Mei wakes up at five am and slips into her clothes. She walks towards the work shop checking the halls carefully to ensure she is not seen. She has to stop quite a few times on the way – the under caffeinated early bird soldiers are easy to avoid but she treads lightly around them. Avoiding the night shift’s attention is harder because they’re not deadly exhausted.

Half an hour later, she is there. The work shop is utterly deserted as everyone is off to eat some breakfast. Not a single soul that can stop her in sight.

She hasn’t ever been this unobserved. Well, if one does not count the cameras, but she can probably make up a good enough explanation when asked. It can’t be helped.

Her blaster should still be on Petrov’s workbench where she left it yesterday. She shifts through the spare parts littering the surface. Broken cables, screws, plastic plates that are molded to serve whatever their original fit was. And underneath… her blaster, score!

Hopefully everything is fine with it. Mei glances over it and when she doesn’t find anything strange she starts a thorough check. The coolant canister is missing – Snowball will probably have to make some more. Other than that, it seems fully functional.

“It is a good design. Very pragmatic.” Vaswani says from behind her.

Mei whirls around and clutches the blaster to her chest. Vaswani slowly comes closer, as graceful as usual, and Mei is backing up against the table. She is… eerie. How did Mei not hear her coming in those heels?  Her heart beat is picking up, but not just because of fear, but jealousy too. How can Vaswani be so composed and perfect while Mei is such a mess? She is older, she should be more grounded and not struggling. Instead, she is torn between wanting to get as far away from Vaswani as possible and wanting to be her at the same time. These are not the best ideas to mix.

At a loss on what to say, Mei falls back to the reliable protocols of formal interaction. “Thank you very much. Your praise is appreciated.” While she is at it, she might as well bow. The weight of the blaster makes it difficult, but Mei is reasonably certain she managed a respectful shallow bow without too much awkwardness.

“You are welcome.” Vaswani’s reply is automatic and then stutters to a halt. “I have to confess I’m not sure about the interaction protocol. Should I bow to you as well?”

Mei tries her hardest not to stare because that - would be rude. Suddenly, they have stepped so far outside of diplomatic territory they probably couldn’t even see the border if they looked back.

“If you want to, I guess.” Mei tries to keep some sort of eye contact but ends up looking at the glasses – visor? – Vaswani is wearing. Come to think of it, she doesn’t think she has seen her without it.

“Ah.” Vaswani says in a dry tone that conveys that she in fact didn’t understand anything. “You are not going to change your mind about working for Vishkar, are you, Dr. Zhou.”

Mei shakes her head mutely and her hands start fiddling with the blaster’s slide controls on autopilot.

“It’s really too bad. I would have liked to work with you.” Vaswani continues, sounding like she is talking to herself as if Mei wasn’t even there. “We were at least able to further some negotiations with Volskaya Industries, so I guess this visit was not entirely pointless.”

The way she says it doesn’t even sound malicious. Just very matter of fact and accepting Mei’s refusal. It’s bizarre and so at odds with how their first interaction went.

“Ms. Vaswani…. I’m sorry.” Mei reaches out to pat her on the arm and stops just short of it, leaving her hand awkwardly hanging there. Would Vaswani actually appreciate this sort of comfort?

Vaswani chuckles and it stuns Mei. Her laugh is deep and rumbles with mirth, sounding genuinely nice. “I don’t think that is necessary, Dr. Zhou. To be frank with you, I feel… relieved.  I look rather forward to continuing my design work in Utopeia. Instead, I was here for weeks and had to talk. There’s nothing I want more than some silence! And finally, I will get it.” Vaswani doesn’t smile but the happiness in her voice is apparent. This might change her reputation as cold as Siberia if anyone else besides Mei would be here to see it.

“Thank you?”  While it doesn’t sound like a typical compliment, Vaswani is sincere. She is even worse with people than Mei, which is a quite a feat even when Mei accounts for a potential cultural barrier.

+++

The news that Vishkar’s ambassador will be leaving has already spread throughout the complex by lunch next day. One of the younger RPG soldiers, Fjodor, launches into an elaborate explanation of the possible economic implications. Zarya nudges Mei gently, which made her chair slide straight into Kuzy’s.

Zarya clears her throat awkwardly and leans into Mei’s direction. “It’s good to hear that the Vishkar situation was resolved amicably.” She is tapping a gentle rhythm next to her cleared plate. Zarya eats like it is her job, focused completely on the ultimate goal of ingesting energy. She might have a spread sheet that doubles as a record of her eating records and her exercise gains.

Honestly, Zarya’s attempt to smooth things over is tempting. A few weeks of awkward talking while they both pretended nothing happened and eventually they would sort of forget about the whole incident. The only one it would still fuck over was Snowball. Mei takes another bite of her food and pretends to mull things over, but in her heart she already knows the answer. Then, without saying anything, she demonstratively turns to Kuzy and asks: “What is your favourite type of meat?” Kuzy does not disappoint and indeed has quite a few opinions to share on this topic. He talks loud enough that everyone on the table is aware of them and most of the other conversations stop or get sucked into Kuzy’s meat discussion.

+++

Avoiding Zarya after that feels more urgent and Mei starts bringing Snowball along to the workshop. If she left Snowball alone anyone might enter her room and harm them. Not that she would be able to do much if she was there. Sometimes at night she stares at the ceiling and wonders when, exactly, Zarya will tell her superiors about the drone’s true nature. Surely it is only a matter of time until things would come to a head.

Until then she stays caught in a strange sort of tension, like watching gathering thunder clouds during the wait for a storm after a blistering summer day. Anticipating the worst as she hopes that it won’t come to pass. In the workshop, she and Snowball slowly run through the longer diagnostic programs for Snowball together. These are more focused on subtle calibrations. She hasn’t done it before and now it seems… prudent to catch up. Mostly it is busy work that kept her occupied as she ponders what to do. But it pays to be prepared.

Petrov and the others initially gave them a wide berth. Snowball doesn’t do much more than hovering while beeping but the soldiers were only reluctantly moving closer again.

“What does it do?” A curious onlooker asks Mei on the third day of exile.

Honestly, Mei is too exhausted by the constant weird tension between her and Zarya and the fear of losing Snowball to even care about giving a reassuring answer. So she just says: “Record climate data.”

“Ah.” The soldier answers. Then she leaves.

The soldier is back on the next day with another question. “Can you slow down the permafrost thawing? My grandfather likes the moss but now birches are sprouting like crazy back home.”

Mei stares at her but her dark brown eyes look sincere and not like she is trying to pull Mei’s leg. “I don’t think I could do it on my own even if I already had enough data. It’s not a problem one person can solve, you know? I’m just collecting the data so other scientists and people can act on it. It might take more time. Sorry about your grandpa’s moss.”

The soldier pulls up her eyebrows. “Wow, you couldn’t have sounded more uninterested in helping if you tried. You should say if I’m bothering you.”

Mei winces. “I had a few rough days.”

Her guest, for the lack of a better word, perks up. “Wow, you didn’t say sorry! That’s great.”

“It is?” She hadn’t even noticed, too lost in her worries and annoyed at the noisy soldier. Why would it be noteworthy, anyway?

“Yes. Petrov will be thrilled when he hears about it.”

Mei is even more perplexed. “He will hear about me not apologising? What?” All the Russian soldiers were so laid back; there was no way this could be a serious offense. Right? “…I’m sorry.” She adds on reflex.

The soldier hangs her head. “Ugh, you were doing so well. Don’t worry too much about it.” She looks truly uncomfortable. Mei can sympathise.

“I didn’t catch your name?” Because the other is speaking a mile per minute. Mei enjoys the chatted as background often enough.

“Olga Kudrina, private.” Her full smile is adorable. Despite everything, Mei feels better.

“Mei-ling Zhou, climate researcher and bad science fiction plot survivor. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise, Dr. Zhou. Would you mind demonstrating your drone again?”

Mei gives instructions to Snowball in Chinese and watches as they execute the flight pattern perfectly. No hesitation in the corners and stops which turn from risky to gentle in a second. Snowball is at the top of their game. Olga applauds with enthusiasm at the skill demonstration.

“Mei.” She whips her head around. Standing in the door way to the workshop is Zarya. Her gait lacks the usual confidence as she treads carefully around scattered replacement parts littering the workshop floor. She has to have been here before but it’s certainly the first time Mei has seen the lieutenant come down here. Before she can wonder why, Zarya is right in front of her and clears her throat. “Could I have a word with you, doctor?”

Somehow, all activity around them has ceased as people’s attentions zeroes in on them. Oh no. Zarya must notice too and disapprove, because she adds on a frosty “In private.”

Mei has barely taken two steps before Zarya’s palm stops her. Mei follows her gaze over her shoulder and sees Snowball. Of course. She turns back with squared shoulders, ready to argue, but Zarya slumps down without a fight. ”Could you bring your drone?” She asks without even stumbling over the words.

Snowball flits forward without any further prompting, twisting their head wildly. At least one of them is happy to be here.

Zarya leads them to the breakroom. It’s uncharacteristically empty and on the table are two steaming cups of tea. Zarya, Mei realizes, must have put quite a bit of thought into this.

There is only one other seat left at the table. Snowball circles the table slowly once until Mei opens up her arms for them. Snowball sinks down slowly into her lap.

Mei waits for Zarya to speak. Snowball twists their ocular array around and flashes question marks at her.

“Your drone—“

“Snowball.” Mei injects without missing a beat. It’s funny, now that her greatest fear regarding Zarya is happening, she can’t worry too much about the rest. The worst case has already happened.

“Your… Snowball.” Zarya conceits in an awkward rush. “You can’t really command them.”

Mei notes the correct pronoun with a nod and Snowball vibrates approvingly. “We’re partners. I’m technically the one allowed to make the calls when we are in the field, but it doesn’t work that way in Antarctica. We have to rely on each other and for that, we need to respect what the other brings to the table. Ordering Snowball arounds defeats the purpose of our partnership.”

“And they can learn?”

“Yes. It’s vital for the scientific work we do and if they ever get separated from me in the wilderness they have at least a chance to return home.” Snowball gives an indignant beep indicating who they think would really be in trouble if they got split up.

“That makes sense.” Zarya pours herself a second cup of tea and drinks about half of it. “What unnerves me the most is, there is more than this to Snowball. If it was just adaptive learning and obeying a code rather than acting as an individual, I don’t think this would be so hard. But… they have a personality.”

Mei meets Zarya’s gaze straight on. “Yes.” She confirms. The sock napping alone has served to distinguish Snowball from their sibling drones.

Zarya raises her mug of tea again and takes a swig. She grimaces at the after taste. “Actually, I might need some alcohol to continue this conversation.” She finds a nice bottle labeled Stolichnaya in the first cup board she opens and sits back down.

“You want some?” Mei shakes her head and Zarya accepts with a shrug. She pours a liberal amount in her own tea cup. If there was any tea left, it certainly is diluted now.

“Does that help?” Mei can’t help but ask. She is more of a social drinker and holds her liquor well. Drinking to forget isn’t anything she ever attempted or achieved.

Zarya swirls her drink before taking another swig. “A bit but often I just feel guilty for breaking my diet plan.” Mei nods and drinks some of her own tea.

After they have sat in silence together for a while, Snowball starts to stir. They make questioning noises and swivel their head back and forth between Mei and Zarya. Mei gives them a head rub to keep the calm.

“What’s the matter?” Despite clearly having noticed Snowball’s change in behaviour, Zarya still looks relaxed thanks to the alcohol.

“Snowball is confused because we stopped speaking.”

Zarya nods with the overly serious manner of the slightly drunk. “Very sensible, Snowball.” She takes some time to think further. “I know you know I don’t like you, right?”

Snowball beeps _affirmative_ and Mei nods her head so they don’t have to worry about translation. “You are smart. I’ll let you in on a secret.” Zarya pauses. Mei has the feeling it is supposed to be dramatic, which it might be if Zarya wasn’t struggling to keep a straight face. “I don’t hate you. It’s surprising, I know, but it’s true. I don’t hate you, Snowball.”

Snowball does seem to be interested. They move their head into Zarya’s direction and hover so that they are at an equal height.

Zarya keeps going in a soft tone. “I hate.  Not like Mei either.” Mei tries to protest just as Zarya silences her with a raised hand. “You get frustrated. You are angry. But it’s a reaction to mistreatment and temporary. I saw it with the architect. You were willing to forgive and move on. Your feelings are rational to some extent and the anger, you can control that. I can’t.”

Mei shakes her head. “That’s not true. I get angry and defensive without meaning to. You can’t just project some innocence that only exists in your head on me.”

“It is different, though. You haven’t seen what the omnics did here. To my home and to my family. And I hate them for it, irrationally and without qualifications. I don’t care if they were controlled by a god program, I see them attacking and burning down my home. I dream of it every night. The crisis has never truly stopped here. We can barely hold them back now.”  The tea is long gone and Zarya plays with her cup instead. She twists it in her hand and studies the decorations with deceptive interest. “I see omnic models that never fought here and I hate them. I see the Shambali order and I feel disgusted, even though I know that their outreach attempts have preserved human lives. It doesn’t matter to my brain. But. I don’t hate you, Snowball.”

Snowball is completely silent as they hover. They wait for a while and when Mei is sure they aren’t going to respond, she asks instead: “Why don’t you hate Snowball?”

“I don’t know.” Zarya sighs. “I can’t really say we have gotten to know each other. But you trust them, Mei, and they clearly adore you. And I want to try for your sake. I want to try not hating an omnic.”

Mei narrows her eyes and sizes Zarya up. Trying to get along with Snowball simply for her sake when Zarya herself has admitted to so many problems is not the most reassuring option. She doesn’t even know what she plans to propose, yet she already knows she should say no. Should take Snowball and run as far away as possible from the Defense Forces base. But… that shouldn’t be her decision. After all, it’s not her life on the line.

“That’s not exactly the apology I hoped to hear. It’s better than nothing though. However, I’m not the one who can make the decision. You should be apologizing to Snowball instead.” Snowball makes one of the default questioning sound arrays. Mei nods. “It’s up to you.  Do you want to give Zarya another chance?”

 _insufficient knowledge – commitment to change unquantified_ Snowball offers and adds a frustrated grinding noise at the end. Their limited experience with humans is coming back to bite them. They should have participated in more video conversations to give them a wider range of human personality. _Mei – no input?_

Mei takes a deep breath and leans closer. “I can give you some if you want. But this affects you the most and I’m not sure if I’m the best person to ask. For one, I am biased.” Snowball knows her best – her ineradicable optimism in all things and they have seen how much Zarya has come to mean to her.

Snowball’s ocular array flicks from Mei to Zarya and back. The heat vents on top flutter with indecision. Then, Snowball beeps. _Try again._ It’s accompanied by an affirmative chime.

Zarya’s shoulders slump slightly in recognition. “Let’s start over then. I… That is, General Volskaya.” She takes a breath to steady herself. “General Volskaya has a strict anti-omnic ideology. The same goes for the rest of the troops. I will try to start over but we will have to do that in private. At this point, I don’t think I can offer more.”

 _Acceptable_ Snowball decides and Mei translates.

“Now that that’s done: Can I get another cup of tea?” Mei holds out her Undyne mug and gets some more black tea.

Zarya ends up leaving without actually interacting with Snowball that much that evening. Honestly, Mei is relieved in some way. Things are still very fragile between all of them and she isn’t too keen on putting so much strain on their truce right away. It’s better to take it slow.

+++

Vaswani starts to turn up in the regular down at the workshop. She never talks as much as the first time again but her company is peaceful. Her hard light technology chimes softly in synchrony with her motions. It almost sounds like music and sometimes Mei catches Vaswani humming along. She has an ear for music, clearly. And when they need to communicate, Mei  finds herself defaulting to gestures instead of interrupting her.

 This period of productivity lasts about a week until Vaswani finally returns to Vishkar headquarters. They part somewhat amicably compared to how they started out first. When Mei comes back to her room after dinner she finds Snowball hovering right inside the door. On the floor is a slim metal square the size of a business card.

“Is it dangerous?” Mei asks and watches as Snowball scans the item.

 _negative_ they reply and spin back and forth in the approximation of a head shake.

As she picks it up the card activates. On its back a glowing geometric pattern is filled in. It flickers and then out of the pattern a hard light construct emerges like a blossom opening. The lines are elegant curves in a fractal pattern, forming a transparent screen in the air.

_Dr. Zhou – I am leaving today. I enjoyed our work together. If you ever have the pleasure to visit Utopeia, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Satya Vaswani_

As soon as Mei picks up the calling card, the hard light vanishes and the card looks like a simple metal piece again. She pockets it in her boots and goes to sit down next to Snowball. Somehow, it feels like saying goodbye to a friend.

+++

Mei is woken up by the sound of her door opening. The light from the hall illuminates Zarya from behind as she stands in the door. Mei blinks at the ceiling for a moment unsure what exactly is happening, then wills herself to get up and slip on her yeti slippers. She fumbles to pick up her glasses from the nightstand. According to Snowball’s standby mode display, it’s almost five am. Zarya looms in the door with intent. Ugh. Mei flops her hand in Zarya’s general direction to get her to explain.

“Get ready, we need to train.” Mei will never understand how Zarya can be such a morning person. Mei manages to push herself off the bed and scuffles over to get some clothes.

She struggles with clasping her only clean bra – the traitor – shut when she hears an argument from behind. Only one of the voices raised is human. In fact, only one of the speakers is capable of human speech. It reminds her of waking up to Zarya and Snowball arguing after she fainted.

“What are- Release the socks, right now.” Snowball argues back with a flurry of beeps and Mei cannot make this damn bra hook fast enough. “Give them back, fiend. You don’t have feet, you don’t need them. Snowball!” A crash sounds followed by the whirr of a weather drone gaining height. Mei winces. Hopefully nothing too expensive got caught in the crossfire because she has no idea how to pay for anything. At least the topic sounds more typical for Snowball. She pulls on a sweater at random and goes to investigate the noises.

Snowball is, predictably, flying near the ceiling with at least five different socks wedged in their chassis while Zarya chases after them. Her height and the low ceiling limit the normal advantages of Snowball’s flying and the surreal game of tag is quite fair as a result.

Mei giggles and can’t bring herself to stop, even when her glasses start to fog as she tries to muffle the sound with her hands. “Mei?” Zarya turns her attention away from Snowball. They drift down as well, concerned about the noises she is making. They both looked so ridiculous and silly and she can’t stop laughing, not even when she needs to breathe. Mei starts to hiccup. Her two favourite people in the world are watching and not fighting.

Zarya sighs and glares accusingly at Snowball who drops all the socks at once. “I’m getting some water.” She says and vanishes back into hallway. Mei’s giggles are slowly abating but her hiccups seem here to stay. She gestures Snowball to her side. They come reluctantly.

“Are you ready to give Zarya back her socks?” Mei asks. Snowball gathers them up to mournful beeps. “Thank you, Snowball.” She gives them a pat and their ocular array becomes a heart symbol. Mei hiccups.

“Here,” Zarya hands her a glass of tap water. Mei chugs it down, trying to swallow as much as possible. She waits a bit and, when no more hiccups come, gets up to finish dressing.

Zarya comes closer to tuck in Mei’s scarf into her collar. “Where is your freeze ray?”

Mei furrows her brows. “My endothermic blaster?” She asks. “It should still be in the workshop.”

Zarya nods. “Let’s go get it.” And they are off. The base is almost deserted at night. Only the night shift is walking the hall occasionally. When they pass them they nod at Zarya and none of them ever stops them to question them even though they are clearly breaking curfew. Without the light of the fluorescent lights the base corridors shine only with the reflections of moonlight, abandoned. They both move without talking, Zarya in front because she knows the layout and Mei stumbling behind her, clutching the back of Zarya’s top to keep from getting lost in the dark.

Zarya leads them on a detour to the workshop to grab the blaster. She hesitates a moment before handing it over to Mei.

Mei is familiar enough with the base layout by now to notice they are moving away from the outdoor training area or the shooting range. Soon they are in a part of the building she doesn’t recognize. The orderly military corridors become large industrial halls with multiple walkway levels. And in the darkness things tower, gigantic shapes that are lit by red emergency lights. Zarya doesn’t spare them a glance. A few times they have to stop so Zarya can disable a turret or another security measures for them.

There are guards stationed at the perimeter as well but they also don’t seem to be bothered by Zarya is leaving this late at night, that she is taking Mei outside with her nor that Snowball is floating behind them both, chirping cheerfully.

Zarya stops them when they are almost out of sight of the guard post. “Ok,” she says and drops a heavy hand on Mei’s shoulder. “Show me how you fight. Aim at the birch there.”

Mei nods. She starts with aiming a steady stream of coolant on the lonely tree. Soon the wind-blown birch is encased in solid ice. Mei switches to icicles and chips away at it. Practicing her aim helped – each icicle hits true and breaks off a piece of the crooked branches cleanly. After it is gone, she makes an ice wall as her new target. She never tried this before, because the indoor nature of the workshop and the range certainly doesn’t lend itself to such experimentation. The wall rises quicker than she imagined even though she lets go of the trigger as soon as she notices, it still is nearly triple her own height.

“Oops.” She rubs the back of her head and glances at Zarya. She stands on the same spot as before, arms folded and unchanged. Their eyes meet and Mei turns back, trying to concentrate on the next task. Her cheeks flush, the traitors, but Zarya can’t see that from behind her, thankfully.

She lets Snowball finish the demonstration with their own little move. They use a modified version of the glacier patch and create a localized blizzard. It looks impressive and anything inside the circle will surely be frozen solid by the amounts of coolant, but Mei isn’t ready to test that theory on living beings yet.

When it is over, she turns back to look at Zarya. “That’s all.” Zarya, looking even bigger in her winter coat with the furred hood, hasn’t moved a millimeter. Her face is unreadable. Holding her gaze Mei shivers. She can’t stop the subtle shaking that doesn’t stem from the cold.

Then, Zarya’s façade breaks and the brilliant grin underneath shines through. “That was pretty good! If you work on that, you…” She pauses. _…could really help us_ , Mei finishes for her. Except Mei hasn’t actually decided to stay with the Russian Defense Forces or even if she would even fight with them in the future. She looks at Zarya. But she might be kidding herself about not wanting to stay. Mei turns away lest Zarya notices her staring.

Snowball bumps her from the side to bring her back down to earth. Their ear vents are fluttering wildly. Clearly Mei isn’t the only one that needed a change. Being cooped up inside for weeks must’ve made their stint so far even harder on Snowball. They were built for outside exploration and their personality matches.

“Ok. Can you help me test something else?” Zarya pulls out what appears to be an overly large gun at first glance. Not as big as her particle cannon, however, even if parts seem almost identical to the cannon. “Pretty neat, huh?” Zarya beams at her as she shoulders the gun without even breaking into sweat.

“What does it do?” Mei just has to ask. Zarya clearly expected it judging by her enormous grin.

“It makes a particle barrier. I figured you already saw the cannon in action, so I took her apart and only brought the barrier.” She flicks the barrier on to demonstrate. It flickers to life as a sphere of blue hexagons and then off again. “Now, attack me.”

Mei takes a deep breath and then hesitates. “Could you pull up the barrier first? I don’t want to hurt you accidentally.”

“I can’t. It only lasts for a few seconds and would probably be gone again when you fired. Don’t worry, I am good enough to block most things.” Zarya grins at her with the confidence of a woman that can lift over 500 pounds. “Go ahead.”

Zarya is right, she does have the reflexes to deflect what Mei throws at her. She starts with shooting some icicles that shatter easily on the shield matrix. Zarya is doing it all effortless and the sheer display of confidence and competence is getting to Mei. She always had a weak spot for talent, no matter what form. Her first crush was a calligraphy child prodigy, all elegance and precision as they wrote increasingly complicated signs with a brush on paper. The methodical persistence of her university partner comes to mind as they slowly walked through balancing a chemical equation. And now Zarya with incredible reflexes and all her strength. At least, Mei figured, she had a type that went under the radar.

They switch to the default coolant stream next. Zarya’s shield can block them as well, but it drops too fast. Mei has about half of her cartridge left and doesn’t show any mercy. In seconds, Zarya is frozen to the ground. Even with all her strength it takes a surprising amount of time to crack the icy cocoon spun around her - during which she is open to any of Mei’s attacks. She almost manages to freeze another layer of ice on top when Zarya bursts free.

“I know your weakness now: Beam weapons!” Mei gloats to the best of her ability.

Zarya shakes out the snow in her hair. “I have to admit, you bested me.” Mei beams at her and then a smirk forms on Zarya’s mouth. “While I was standing as still as a rock and defending. Still, not bad I suppose.” Snowball lets out a digital giggle at Mei’s expense.

Mei is too old to get involved into something like this. “I’m taking that as a compliment, even if you certainly don’t make it sound like one.” With one hand she switches off the blaster. It is late and cold, but for a few moment she forgot where they were – outside in Siberia, even if the cold wind probably counts as nice weather here. Mei pulls her hood strings to stop the wind from getting in and hiked up her scarf to her nose.

Zarya eyes her up and down. “I guess it’s time to go back inside. Come!” She scoops up the particle canon as if it was a forgotten pillow. Snowball hovers next to her and illuminates the way back. When Mei is caught up the three of them start trekking back to the base.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, we have been Jossed. I would like to think the Mei short and the Zarya comic are not too different in characterisation. I'll be borrowing a bit from them to incorporate into the fic.


End file.
